Skin Deep
by Nocte Nebula
Summary: Brandleif Rorche wasn't quite sure what she was expecting when circumstance, tragedy, and her mother forced her into Fairy Tail at a young age, but dragons, demons, baddies and weirdos definitely wasn't it. Thanks a bunch, Mom. Juvia/F!OC/Gray.
1. Prologue

_A/N - Some of you might be wondering, "hey, Nocte, where's the next chapter of Tempus Fugit?" Unless you aren't one of the people reading my Soul Eater fic, in which case, just ignore this next paragraph._

 _I've been dealing with some really bad writers block with Tempus Fugit, to the point where I'm lucky if I can get a sentence done a night. I don't want to overtax my brain and produce mediocre work, but I also don't want to just stop writing altogether. Luckily, there is something my brain is more than happy to produce ideas for, and that's the Fairy Tail fic I've been teasing for these past several months. So, I'm going to be working on that for a bit and put Tempus Fugit on hiatus... again. Whoops. Sorry to those who were eager to see the next chapter of that soon, but it'll probably be a while! ^_^' I just want to make sure you guys get the very best that I can deliver._

 _In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Skin Deep! Notes will be at the end of this chapter. (Also I'll upload a cover soon, don't worry. Just haven't ha the time to make one, yet.)_

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Prologue - Arrival**

* * *

 _May 13, X776_

* * *

 _Makarov,_

 _I know news travels faster than carriages, and it is possible that you will have heard what has transpired in Ranuncolo before this message reached you, so you must pardon me if I skip the pleasantries and get straight to the point. There was an incident involving a Triad's Foresight wizard, and something very unpleasant has occurred as a result._

 _I believe you have already met Emmett Torhearth, my resident Construction wizard. If not, he's the dark-haired gentleman standing in front of you trying to pretend that he didn't read this letter on the ride to Magnolia. (Honestly, Emmett, you should know better than anyone that you can't hide anything from me.) You'll notice that he no longer bears the Triad's Foresight guild mark. This is because, suffice to say, he made a grave error in judgement, one that put a life I value above all others at risk, and after careful consideration I have made the decision to remove him from the ranks of my Guild._

 _However._

 _Emmett is an extremely skilled Construction wizard, and he is remorseful about his actions to boot. I feel it would be remiss of me to cast him out of wizarding life completely, and that course of action would still leave one other problem anyway, so I have decided to ask a favor of you. You mentioned at the last congregation of guild leaders that your guild's doors were always open to those who needed it, so I invite you to take Emmett in as a member of Fairy Tail. As I mentioned, he is a good wizard, and while he has his flaws he is ultimately a good man as well. Even his greatest and most recent blunder was done with good intentions. And if I remember correctly, well-intentioned fools who don't consider the consequences of their actions are Fairy Tail's bread and butter._

 _Oh, don't scowl like that, you know it's true. Like I said, news travels fast, so don't think I didn't hear about that little incident down south with one of your junior wizards. (An entire aquatic exhibit, completely frozen over? Really?) Emmett will fit right in among your merry band of misfits._

 _And he's not the only one. You'll have probably noticed that Emmett did not arrive on your doorstep alone. His young charge, who you have never met before but have certainly heard much about, is the second guilty party in the little incident, and someone whose livelihood must be protected at all cost. I feel that recent events have proven that I am not qualified to offer that protection, as much as it pains me. You could provide that, however, and teach her how to handle the terrible responsibility that has been forced upon her. She is also Emmett's student in the art of Construction, and I believed that it would be unfair to separate them, especially considering how attached she is to her mentor. She has the potential to be a great wizard, and would do Fairy Tail proud._

 _Of course, I know all these attempts at persuasion are pointless. I already know you're going to say yes, and not just because of my magic. I can always count on you, you soft-hearted old geezer._

 _I don't believe that I have to remind you just how important these charges are to me. If any harm comes to them while they are under your care, not even Fairy Law will be able to stop my wrath._

 _Glad you understand._

 _Emmett can explain the incident of further detail if you ask him. I would prefer not to think about it more than necessary._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Cassandra_

* * *

Makarov grumbled as he read the letter, brows knitted together across a forehead wrinkled with age as he ran a sharp gaze over the words on the pages in his hands. "This is just like her," he huffed. Every passive aggressive jab at him and his Guild, every smug reminder of the potency of her magic just _screamed_ Cassandra. He'd half a mind to say to hell with her and send this tall, tanned man with the rumpled dark hair and apologetic grin right back to Ranuncolo just to see the look on her face at the next conference.

He wasn't going to do that, though. He didn't believe in turning away people in need, even if those people had been unceremoniously dumped on his lap like a box of stray kittens. He peered at the man in front of him, taking in his plain gray traveling cloak and the satchel over his shoulder. Despite knowing that he wasn't heading back to his home city any time soon, he'd still packed light.

As if sensing his unasked question, the man spoke. "Cassandra's confident that you'll say yes, and I have faith in her, but I wanted to be prepared for the worst. If you'll accept us, I can send for the rest of our stuff to be shipped here from Ranuncolo. If not, well, we'll go back and figure something out."

"I see," Makarov said. "So, you're Cassandra's Construction wizard, are you?"

The man nodded, a faint flush appearing across his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Y-yeah, that's me. Emmett Torhearth, of the… _formerly_ of the Triad's Foresight guild. "He corrected himself in time, a pained expression crossing his well-defined features. "My Construction focus is stone. Stone soldiers, to be precise. I actually have some marble in my bag, if you want to see…"

He shoved his hand into the satchel and began to dig around, but was stopped mid-search by Makarov's shake of the head. "That won't be necessary," he said. "I trust in your abilities. Cassandra has very high expectations for members of her guild, if I recall. I do have one question, though. The letter mentioned two charges, so where's this girl that Cassandra talked about?"

"Huh? Oh!" Emmett turned around, his acorn-brown gaze dropping down and behind him. "You can come out now," he said, his voice tender as he spoke to something Makarov couldn't see. "It's okay, sweetie. Nothing bad's going to happen, I promise."

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then a small, dark head poked out from behind the man's cloak. "You don't know that." This voice was small and timid, yet retained a familiar bluntness to it that Makarov couldn't quite place…

"Sure I do," Emmett replied. "It's perfectly safe here. Now, come on out and meet the master of the Fairy Tail guild, okay? His name's Makarov. Don't worry; he's friendly."

The tiny form shrank back a bit, staring down at the floor as if deciding whether or not to believe the person whose legs she was currently using as a shield. Eventually she nodded and stepped out, staring at Makarov with big, pensive yellow eyes.

Wait. Yellow eyes? Now everything was starting to make sense.

Looking at her, this girl certainly looked like her mother's daughter. While her skin was a lighter shade of brown, indicating a father of paler ancestry, and her long, twin-braided hair was an umber brown as opposed to a stark black, the similarities in facial structure were obvious. She had the same sharp cheekbones under all that youthful roundness, the same soft curve to her nose… In about ten year's time, this young lady would become the spitting image of her mother.

In looks, anyway. Maybe not so much in disposition. The girl had a look on her face that suggested she wanted to bolt out the door and run until she was halfway to the Northern Continent. She was also dressed very warmly for the weather, wearing an oversized, forest-green hoodie with sleeves that completely covered her tiny hands and a dark brown skirt over thick, greyish cargo pants. Were it winter, such an ensemble wouldn't have struck Makarov as odd, but it was late spring, and Magnolia wasn't particularly frigid this time of year.

Well, all right, sometimes certain parts of it were, but that had less to do with the climate and more to do with Fairy Tail's resident ice wizard. Speaking of which, he really needed to have a good long talk with Gray about that aquatic exhibit at some point.

The girl was currently trying to hide behind Emmett's cloak again, but the Construction wizard wasn't having any of it, taking a step to the side. "There's no need to hide, kiddo," he said. "Master Makarov here is a good friend of you mom's; he's not gonna hurt you."

"T-that's not what I'm scared of! I'm scared that… I'm scared that…" Tearing up, the girl went back to staring at the floor, biting her lip to keep herself from crying. "You know why."

A strange expression flitted across Emmett's face, a mixture of understanding and overwhelming remorse. He knelt down to meet the little girl at eye level. "Sweetie," he said. "I know you're scared, and I don't blame you. But we were sent here to try and make things easier for you, so that we could help you with this. Master Makarov here is one of the Ten Wizard Saints; he can handle anything that gets thrown at him. No one here is in any danger, I promise." Makarov shot Emmett a questioning look, and Emmett responded with a look that said he'd explain everything once the kid was out of earshot. Fair enough, he supposed.

The girl frowned, skeptical. "You sure?" she asked.

"Absolutely," Emmett assured her. "Now, why don't you be a good girl and introduce herself to Master Makarov here? I bet he's dying to meet you."

"Okay." The girl turned to Makarov and held out one sleeve-covered hand, which Makarov promptly shook. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Master Makarov," she said, her face twisting into a mask of politeness so carefully constructed that it was almost difficult to believe that she was just a shy little girl just two seconds ago. "My name is Brandleif Rorche. Me and Mister Torhearth are here to join your guild."

"Brandleif Rorche, eh?" Makarov said, scratching at his chin and pretending to look thoughtful. It was an act; he'd already made up his mind on these two. "Daughter of Cassandra Rorche, one of the three founders of the Triad's Foresight guild?"

"Two," the little girl corrected him, her face reddening a bit at the mention of her mother. "My dad was Galen Gal, another of the founders. I don't really remember him all that much, though."

This girl had a lot of magical potential then. He was surprised she wasn't studying in the same magic her parents had. Rorches had a natural knack for the gift, after all. Perhaps that inclination just passed her over? "I see, I see. I hear that you're learning the art of Construction, too?"

Brandleif nodded. "Yeah! My focus is ink!" _Not surprising._ Then her face fell, and her shoulders slumped forward. "But I'm not good at it. I always mess up real bad when I try."

Well, there was one more way this kid was different than her mom. Her mother would never go so far as to be so self-effacing in regards to her magic. "Well, that makes no difference to me," Makarov said. "The Fairy Tail's doors are always open to any wizard who walks through them. We even have a few other kids around here that you can make friends with." Speaking of which, the kids were nowhere to be seen. Off making trouble, no doubt. No doubt Makarov would have to pay for their antics later, too. "You're more than welcome to join us, the both of you."

A hopeful smile briefly flickered across the young girl's face. "You mean it?" she asked. "But… you don't even know why we were sent here… shouldn't you… what if you…?"

Makarov shook his head. "Oh, I doubt that it's as bad as Cassandra makes it out to be," he said. "That woman always had a flair for the dramatic. Whatever it is, it's nothing that Fairy Tail can't handle."

"Then you'll accept us?" Emmett asked.

Wasn't that what Makarov had just said? Yes, he was sure it was. "I don't see why not," he replied. "Emmett Torhearth. Brandleif Rorche. On behalf of the Guild, I formally welcome the two of you into Fairy Tail!"

* * *

 _A/N - Admittedly, there's not a whole lot to talk about in this chapter, so let me talk about names! People who read Tempus Fugit know that I am a big fan of the Meaningful Name trope, and it's going to be in full force for this fanfiction, so let me talk about the names that I can talk about:_

 _The city of Ranuncolo follows Fiore's flower theme with its name and its city names; "ranunculus" is the scientific name for the genus of flowers also known as buttercups. Emmett's name comes from "emet," the Hebrew word for truth. This came from a Jewish tale I read about a clay/stone (I don't remember the details) golem with the word emet written on its forhead; since Emmett's magic focuses around stone soldiers, I thought it would be a fun little pun. Torhearth is just a random string of phonemes I put together that I thought would fit him. Brandleif's surname, Rorche, comes from Rorschach tests, and her magic is, like she says, ink-based._

 _Now, you may be wondering, who gives their main character ink magic? How do you make ink awesome?_

 _You'll see. ;)_

 _Chapters one and two are already written, and will be posted somewhat soon (I want to pace them out a little). Hopefully I'll be able to keep on to of this for a few chapters before I get my Tempus Fugit mojo back. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _\- Diana "Nocte"_


	2. Chapter 1

_A/N - "I don't want to upload everything all at once," I said. "I want to maintain my buffer," I said. Pfeh._

 _Anyway, here's where the story starts for realsies. One of my biggest points about writing an OC-insert story is that I want the character to be inegrated into the story without overshadowing or being overshadowed by the canon characters, so you won't have to worry about her taking the spotlight from, say, Lucy or Natsu! Not to say she won't get her own time in it, but it won't be at the expense of the canon characters._

 _I also cobbled together a cover for this story, just like I said I would! It's in a slightly different style than Tempus Fugit's, but that's for a good reason._

 _Since there's not a whole lot to talk about before the chapter, I'm just going to cut straight to the chase and say a very merry thank you to Baka-Beka for being the very first reviewer of Skin Deep! Sorry that there's not a whole lot to talk about yet; The first few chapters are mostly just me throwing down the foundation of the story. Gotta have a good foundation, or else the whole house will fall apart, you know! I hope you enjoy where this story goes!_

 _Notes will be at the end of this chapter._

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Chapter One - The Port Town of Hargeon**

* * *

 _July 2nd, X784_

* * *

 _Brandleif,_

 _Watch the fingers of the hand that conjures violet. Board the boat, but do not drink the wine._

 _And for the love of all that is sacred in this world, keep yourself out of harm's way this time. I don't need another letter sent home about how you almost got yourself set on fire. Do you hear me, young lady?_

 _Mother_

* * *

 _Oh, this is just like her_ , Brandy thought, crumpling the letter back up and shoving it into the pocket of her dark brown overcloak. Cryptic warnings followed by a stern scolding. _We can't all be perfect like you, Mother dearest._ With a bitter scowl, she swept her choppy, chin-length dark hair away from her face. _Some of us are human and make errors and aren't super-awesome incredibly powerful wizards who can afford to lord their abilities over everyone else._

Behind her, she could hear a weak groan, and turned around to see her salmon-haired traveling companion doubled over on the floor of the train car they were currently standing in, while the blue bipedal cat that made up the third point of their triangle of adventure was trying to rouse him. _And that is just like him, too. I swear, the day we find a mode of transportation he can stand is the day I'm throwing the biggest party Fiore's ever seen._ "Oh, save it 'til we get off, you big baby," she said.

"Never…" noted fire wizard Natsu Dragneel moaned, his voice muffled from the fact that he was currently face-down on in ground. "I'm never riding a stupid train again…"

Brandy sighed. "Well, the day that trains stop being the main mode of transportation in Fiore, I'll be sure to let you know," she quipped. "Look, heading here was your idea, so don't complain when we have to travel, okay?" The only answer she received was a whimper and another groan. "Oh, you are just _impossible_ some days, you know that?" She approached the open door, peering out at the city their train had stopped at. "So, this is Hargeon, huh?" she said.

"Aye!" the cat, a noisy little blue beast by the very appropriate name of Happy, said as he approached the door, stopping right at the gap between train and platform. "If our information is correct, then we should find that Salamander somewhere in this town."

"That's assuming that this information _is_ correct," Brandy said. "We still don't know if this guy even is who you two are looking for." She was pretty sure her mom would have let her know if that was the case, considering just _who_ and _what_ the person they were looking for was, but Mother always did have an infuriating habit of hiding information to fuel her own ego.

"It has to be!" Happy exclaimed. "Who else could Salamander be? Natsu, let's go!"

"Just… give me a second, would ya?" Natsu had managed to get himself off the floor, which was a start. Now, though, he was partially hanging out of the train window, looking more than a little green around the gills.

"Fine by me." Brandy said, and stepped off the train and officially into Hargeon, with Happy close on her heels. She'd heard quite a few pleasant things about this town. However, most of the things she'd heard were from Happy, and this was a city where the main trade was _fish,_ so perhaps taking it all at face value wasn't a good idea. Happy would start worshipping the sun if it grew gills and a tail.

Well, on the bright side, it didn't _smell_ like fish, at least in this part of the city. Silver lining.

As she looked around, taking in her surroundings, the train whistled behind her, and the distinct sound of the wheels beginning to hiss and move filled the air. Brandy exchanged a quick glance with Happy before the two of them looked over their shoulder to see the train taking off for its next destination… with Natsu still on it, screaming in terror as he passed by the two of them. " _Noooooooo!"_ he cried. " _Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!_ "

"Uh-oh," Happy muttered.

Natsu's shouts faded into the distance along with the train, and if Brandy weren't so frustrated she would have admired his vocal capacity. Dude had some lungs on him, she'd give him that. "It's your turn to fetch him this time, Happy," she said, turning back towards the city. "I'm trying to conserve my magic. My mother's missive suggested that something's going to happen here, and I don't want to waste my energy saving Natsu from his own motion sickness. Besides, he can handle your method of transportation a lot better than he can handle mine."

"Aye!" Happy dropped the green rucksack that had been slung over his shoulder and summoned his Aera wings. "If someone doesn't rescue him, he might throw up and pass out."

"And not necessarily in that order. I'm going to go on ahead, see if I can find this 'Salamander' guy," Brandy said, and Happy nodded his understanding before flying off to go retrieve his friend. Brandy watched him leave before focusing on the task ahead of her, making her way down the long, curved streets of Hargeon. "Now, this shouldn't be so hard," she said. "After all, you're looking for a giant fire-breathing dragon. Finding him should be a piece of cake, right?"

Realizing that perhaps scouring the streets for a gargantuan flying reptilian was probably not the most solid of plans, Brandy turned her gaze skywards. Eyes the color of a firefly's light flickering in the night sky scoured the clouds, searching for any sign that a dragon had been there. Not that she knew what to look for in the first place, really. This really wasn't a task suited for her, but she had offered to go anyway, if only to keep an eye on Natsu and at least make a token attempt to ensure that he didn't end up destroying a port or something. Though, she'd wished that she'd changed her mind after she'd gotten the letter from her mother, just to imagine the look on the latter's face.

 _Now, that's not fair, Brandy,_ she scolded herself, tugging at the sleeves of her coat with long, light brown fingers. _Don't go leaving your guildmates hanging just because of your family troubles. That's not fair to them now, is it?_ Still, the thought to do just that the next time her mom decided to go all "cryptic seer" on her was quite tempting…

As she continued her walk, still looking around for any signs of both Natsu's dad and whatever it is that her mother had been talking about, she heard the distinct sound of a crowd in the distance, one comprised of mostly ladies if the soprano screams of jubilation were anything to go by. _Even if that's not what we're looking for, it's gotta be worth checking out,_ she thought. She moved forward into the intersection between the road she was one and another to go investigate…

...And bumped into Natsu, who'd been walking across the intersecting road. _So much for doing some solo investigating._ Brandy took a moment to both compose herself and to catch the Dragon Slayer, who'd stumbled from an unfortunate combination of lingering motion sickness and the impossibly heavy backpack he was lugging around. How _Happy_ always managed to carry around the big lug like he was a feather, Brandy would never know. "Hey, there you are," she said as she helped him regain his equilibrium. "Have a pleasant train ride?" An olive-brown glare of incredulity was the only response she received, and probably the only response she deserved. "I'll take that as a no."

"I wound up riding the train _twice,_ " Natsu whined.

"You've really gotta get over that motion sickness," Happy remarked.

A gurgling whimper was the pink-haired boy's immediate reaction, indicating that such a change would not be occurring any time within the foreseeable future. "And now I'm so hungry I could eat my hand," he said as he started walking again.

"Please don't," Brandy teased, a smile playing at the corner of her lips. "You kind of need those."

"I'm not gonna eat my actual hand, Brandy." A pause, punctuated by the low growling of Natsu's belly. "Well, maybe I will. Uuuugh, my stomach's so loud I bet the guys back in Magnolia can hear it."

"It's too bad we don't have money for food," Happy said. "We had to give it all to the train people in exchange for making them stop the train so you could get off."

Oh. Well, that was just fantastic. _Couldn't have warned me about extraneous travel fees, could you, Mother? No, it had to be purple hands and wine. What good is telling me not to drink wine? I don't drink wine anyway! I suppose you could call me sort of a brandy sort of person, ha hah… that's also a lie, I don't drink brandy either._ "Then we'd better not stay here for too long," Brandy said. "The quicker we finish up here and get back to Marigold, the sooner we can get you two fed. And me fed, come to think of it." She hadn't noticed in on the train ride to Hargeon, but she was starting to get a bit peckish, herself. The perils of eating for seven, she supposed, even though that wasn't actually how it worked.

"Yeah," Natsu said before turning his attention to the blue cat trotting in between them. "Hey, Happy? This Salamander we're looking for has gotta be Igneel, right?"

"Aye," Happy chirped. "It has to be, 'cause the only fire dragon I've ever heard of is Igneel."

"That's true." Natsu glanced at Brandy. "What about you? Was your mom's letter any help?"

"Are they ever?" Brandy snorted. "She just spouted some nonsense and then preemptively scolded me, same as she always does. Honestly, these days it's like she's not even using her magic to figure things out. She just _assumes_ I'll get in trouble whenever I go on a mission with you two."

"That's probably because you usually do," Happy said.

"Hey, no, no, no, _you_ jerks are always the ones getting in trouble. I'm just the poor sap you keep dragging along for the ride," Brandy retorted sharply, clenching her hands into fists from underneath her robes. "Besides, that's not the point. The point is that she never says anything in a straightforward manner, it's always 'oooh look at me with my magic, look how awesome I am.' Just _once_ I'd like for her to get straight to the point. 'Go here, do this, find Natsu's dad over there.' Something simple, y'know?"

Natsu piped up. "You think she'd be able to direct us to a place that gives out free food?" he asked, his query punctuated by a sharp growl from his midsection. "Seriously, Brands, I'm starving over here."

Brandy shrugged. "Maybe, but you'd have to solve three riddles to find it or she'll eat you. Ooooh." She waggled her fingers menacingly.

"Knowing your mom, she probably would!" Happy said. "Mrs. Rorche is super-scary."

Brandy opened her mouth to respond about how her mother was more of a pain in the butt than actually frightening and that Happy was just a big ol' scaredy-cat, but before she could she was cut off by yet more shrill screams. "What _is_ all that racket?" she muttered raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she peered into the distance. A gaggle of people were crowded in the streets ahead, completely blocking traffic. Amidst the shrieking, a few words could be picked out. " _Salamander!"_ " _You're so dreamy!"_ " _And so hot!"_

"Salamander?!" Natsu and Happy spoke simultaneously, face lighting up as they turned to face one another before immediately running off. "Well, speak of the devil!" Natsu exclaimed. "We're in luck today, Happy!"

"Aye!"

"W-wait, boys, get back here!" Brandy chased after the two, cursing her heavy cloak for slowing her down. Something wasn't adding up. Why would a bunch of girls be extolling the attractiveness of Natsu's dad, all of creatures? Admittedly, she wasn't really one to judge on people's tastes, but she didn't think that _giant scaly lizard-monsters_ were the sort of thing that inked people's pens, if you caught her drift.

She caught up to Natsu and Happy just as the former was shoving his way through the crowd of young women. "Igneel!" he shouted, hope and excitement lacing his voice. "Igneel! Igneel, it's meeeeeee…"

The person in the center of the crowd, the subject of admiration for what seemed to be _every_ woman in Hargeon, was _not_ Natsu's father. This Salamander fellow was in fact a tall, well-kept man with dark blue hair and a purple cloak lined with golden thread. On his forehead, right above his right brow, was a symbol that Brandy didn't recognize. Some sort of Guild Mark, maybe?

All right, so definitely not Igneel, but she had to admit, this wasn't a complete loss. He _was_ very easy on the eyes, and there was a certain… _charm_ around him that she couldn't deny. She could definitely see why all these women were infatuated with him.

Natsu, on the other hand, was clearly less than impressed. "Who the heck are you?"

The handsome man looked downright offended at the insinuation that he wasn't important enough to know. "Who am _I?!_ " He exclaimed, aghast. He raised his right hand upward, flashing his rings to the crowd with a dazzling grin. " _I'm_ Salamander. Surely you've heard of me befo- h-hey, wait a minute!"

Natsu and Happy were already halfway down the street by the time the man finished speaking. They didn't get much farther than that before one of the women charged forward and kicked Natsu square in the back of the head. She was then followed by several more fangirls, all dogpiling on the pink-haired wizard. " _You're so rude!"_ one of them shouted.

" _Salamander's a great wizard!"_ another agreed. " _You better apologize to him or we're gonna rip you to shreds!"_

" _What is it with you girls?"_ Natsu croaked from underneath the pile of angry Salamander admirers.

A small voice in the back of Brandy's mind told her she should probably help her friend, but she ignored it, instead gazing at Salamander with rapt attention. She had to admit, he _was_ pretty dreamy… something about the way he stood, completely and utterly confident in his own status, drew her in, made it impossible for her to turn away…

"Now, now," Salamander said, running his hand through his indigo locks, "that's enough, my lovelies, let him go. I'm sure the poor boy didn't mean anything _malicious_ by it." As the women dragged Natsu back into the crowd, crying Salamander's name as they did, the man pulled out a white board and a marker and scrawled something down. "Here's my autograph, kid. Now you can brag to all your friends!"

"No thanks," Natsu replied, and immediately got dogpiled again.

"Now, now, Natsu, don't be rude." Brandy scolded, voice a little hazy. "Maybe we could stick around for a bit, I know he's not who we were looking for but that doesn't mean we should just brush him off."

Salamander turned his dark gaze on Brandy, and she blushed under the intensity of his stare. "Your gorgeous friend is right, kid," he said. "Sadly, I'm afraid I must be going, ladies. I have business to attend to."

" _You're leaving already?"_ the crowd shouted in despair. Even Brandy felt a bit downhearted at this. She'd just gotten to meet the guy (...sort of) and already he was running off?

"I know, I hate to leave you, but it's very urgent." Salamander snapped his fingers, calling forth a magic circle. "Time for the red carpet." Around his feet, violet flames appeared, twining themselves into a snakelike form that picked him up and carried him into the air.

Something clicked in Brandy's infatuation-addled mind, something from her mother's letter. _Watch the fingers of the hand that conjures violet…_ Was this what she meant? Why would her mom be warning her about this guy? She managed to wrench her gaze away from the man's face and stared intently at his hand. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary about them; long fingers, skin that had been roughened and calloused by what was surely years of practice with fire magic, two rings, nothing specia-

Wait.

Was that a…?

And just like that, the fog that had been lingering over Brandy's thoughts was broken by the light of the truth shining through, and she saw Salamander for what he truly was; an arrogant sleazeball who wasn't nearly as attractive or well-dressed as he liked to portray himself as. "Gyack!" she exclaimed, stumbling back a few feet. _That no-good creep's using a charm spell!_ So that was what her mother was warning her about. _Could've been a bit more straightforward about that._

"You saw it too, huh?" An unfamiliar voice caught Brandy's attention, and she turned to see a pale, curvy girl to her right, glaring up at Salamander with disgust written all over her face. She was a fairly pretty young woman; her thick blonde hair had been partially pulled to one side of her head in a half-ponytail with a blue ribbon, and her eyes were a rich, dark brown, the color of freshly-roasted coffee. She was clad in a white-and-blue sleeveless top, a cerulean mini-skirt, and a pair of black leather boots that reached up to her knees. At her hip was, of all things, a _whip;_ was that meant to be a weapon or was this girl just into some weird things?

Brandy gaped for another second or two before she remembered that she has been technically asked a question. "Yeah," she said. "He's either really creepy or really insecure if he needs a charm spell to attract women. Or both."

"Yeah." The blonde girl shuddered. "Good thing your friend barged in when he did, or I would never have noticed the ring."

Salamander hadn't quite finished playing his audience, however. "Never fret, though, my dears!" he shouted from his position atop the trail of violet flames. "I'm having a _soirée_ on my yacht tonight, and you're all invited!" With another snap of his fingers, he was off, soaring away in the direction of the docks, leaving only the falsely-enamored crowd behind.

"Blegh, as if," the blonde girl muttered. "We should probably make sure your friend's all right, huh?"

"Eh, he's probably fine," Brandy responded. "He's dealt with worse than a mob of enchanted fangirls." Hell, he'd _been_ worse. "Here, see, he's getting up already."

She and the blonde girl made their way through the crowd to where Natsu was pulling himself up into a sitting position. "Who the heck was that guy?" he said, staring at the quickly-dissipating trail of violet against the brilliant aqua sky.

"I dunno, by he was a real creep," the blonde said, catching Natsu's attention. "Thank you for the help!"

Natsu blinked. "What help?"

"Oh, I can explain that later. First, why don't I buy you guys some food to return the favor? You three sound pretty hungry." She pointed a finger in the general area of Brandy's midsection, and it was only then that the umber-haired woman realized that her stomach had been growling this whole time.

Natsu looked like a kid who'd just been told he was getting double the cake on his birthday at the mention of food, and Brandy had to bite back a wince. _I really hope you have a wallet that can match this boy's appetite, blondie,_ she thinks, _or you may just regret your generosity…_

* * *

 _A/N - And here we've gotten the first taste our protagonist in the modern day! A far cry from the shy little girl in the prologue, huh? ;) Right down to the name. Yeah, for this chapter I kept having to correct myself every time I wrote out Brandleif instead of Brandy. I was used to thinking about her as the first one._

 _I was bouncing back and forth a bit on what Brandy's reaction to faux!Salamander would be; would she recognize the magic right away? Would she get ensnared but snap out of it on her own? Would she have to be told by Lucy? I eventually settled on the second one, figuring that it would make more sense with her mom's letter. (And yeah, I know it's a little silly to try and be coy about the fact that her mom's Cassandra, sense Makarov said it in the prologue. It's mostly for in-universe development, not for some big reader plot twist. Not that there won't be big reader plot twists in this story, mind, it's just that Cassandra isn't one of them.)_

 _Hm, not much else to say about this chapter. Like I said, the prologue and the first two chapters is just mostly me laying down some groundwork for Brandy's character and relationships with the main characters._

 _Chapter two will be up soon! In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _\- Diana "Nocte"_


	3. Chapter 2

_A/N - And here's the second chapter. Or, is it the third chapter? I have the document for the prologue saved as Chapter 0, but is it technically still the first chapter? Hm. Well, it's titled "Chapter Two," so I guess it's the second chapter!_

 _There's not much to talk about at the beginning, other than the fact that these first few chapters are proving remarkably easy to write. Brandy's a fun character, and a lot more straightforward than Alecto or Tempus is, which makes writing her dialogue a lot easier._

 _Notes will be at the end of this chapter._

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Chapter Two - Meeting Lucy**

* * *

"So, um, Natsu, Happy, and… Brandy, was it?"

The blonde woman, who had just introduced herself as Lucy, was sitting across from the other three at the small diner booth, looking like she was very much regretting her generosity as Natsu scarfed down plate after plate with no sign of stopping. Happy, despite being a tenth the size, was hardly any better, leaving a pile of fish bones in front of him as he went through what was surely the restaurant's entire supply of fish. Brandy hadn't been nearly so inconsiderate to their new acquaintance, had ordered a simple bowl of tonjiru for herself, trying very hard to ignore the food flying everywhere as she ate.

"Mh-hm!" Natsu grunted in response to Lucy's question, his mouth full of shrimp noodles. "You're so _nice_!"

"Thanks!" Lucy said sheepishly. "You know, you can slow down, we're not in a hurry, and food is kind of flying everywhere…" Seeming to realize that her request for basic table manners was being made in vain, she switched gears. "Evidently that Salamander guy was using magic, a charm spell, to hypnotize the ladies in town into thinking they were in love with them. Charm spells have the power to attract people to you against their own will. They've been banned for years, nobody even sells them anymore."

"Nobody sells them _legitimately_ ," Brandy corrected after swallowing a spoonful of her soup. "Black market magic isn't that uncommon, unfortunately, and really difficult to successfully smoke out." She remembered the time that she and Master Torhearth had trying to track down a group of magics selling illegal magical wands, to little avail.

Lucy frowned at this. "That guy must have gone through a lot of trouble to get his hands on it, then. What a creep! I totally fell victim to his spell, too, but I snapped out of it thanks to you barging in when you did. I really can't thank you guys enough."

Natsu still looked a little baffled, but he wasn't about to reject gratitude expressed in the form of lunch. "You're welcome," he said, his words a bit garbled by the whole tomato in his mouth.

"You know," Lucy continued, "I may not look like it, but I'm a wizard, too!"

"That so?" Natsu said.

"Yeah." Lucy suddenly looked a little sheepish, dark gaze flitting to the grains in the wood of the table and back. "But I haven't actually joined a guild yet or anything."

Brandy perked up slightly, a little more interested in the conversation. _A wizard?_ That would explain why she was able to recognize the charm spell so easily; most citizens would have just looked at his hands and seen two rings, not bothering to give them more thought. She idly wondered if Lucy was a caster-type or a holder-type wizard, and what type of magic she used.

Before Brandy could sate her curiosity, however, Lucy continued speaking. "Oh! I should probably explain, huh? See, guilds are these organizations where wizards come together to share information and find work and things like that. Unfortunately, you aren't considered a full-fledged wizard until you become a member of a guild."

Natsu and Brandy exchanged a quick look over the rapidly growing pile of dishes. Didn't this girl recognize three fellow wizards when she saw them? Brandy wondered how long it would take before she realized. "Like Triad's Foresight?" she asked, playing the part of the naive commoner as she rested her chin on her folded hands.

"Yeah! You know about them?"

 _I was them, eight years ago._ "I grew up in Ranuncolo," Brandy says instead. "Triad's Foresight is a kind of a big deal over there. Biggest congregation of scrying-based wizards in Fiore, if I recall correctly." Of course she recalled correctly; her mother would never stop bragging about it.

"Oh, yes, it's so amazing!" Lucy gushes. "I read about Team Royal Flush in one of the latest issues of Sorcerer Weekly - they're one of Triad Foresight's top Triad Teams, you know! They say that Hyacinth Lliant can scry through any body of water in the world, even raindrops! Can you imagine that? But there are tons of guilds all over besides Triad's Foresight. I've heard it's really tough to get into the more popular ones, and the Guild I wanna join is the most popular one there is!" She'd gone completely starry-eyed. "Aaaah, they're the greatest and they're always featured in Sorcerer Weekly. Oh, if I could actually convince them to let me in, I think I'd just about _die!_ "

"Yeah?" Natsu seemed thoroughly unimpressed. And Brandy didn't blame him; they both _knew_ what the greatest guild in Fiore was, and it wasn't Blue Pegasus or Quatro Cerberus. And it _definitely_ wasn't Triad's Foresight.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess all this wizarding talk must sound like a bunch of gibberish to you, huh?" Lucy said. (Brandy almost laughed at this, and immediately had to drown her mirth with the rest of her tonjiru.) "But I'm telling you, I'm definitely gonna join that guild someday. And then I'm gonna take all kinds of exciting jobs and make tons of money!"

"Oh?" Natsu said, turning back to the last remnants of his meal.

"You talk a lot," Happy interjected.

"Hey, she's buying us food, I'd say the lady has earned the right to talk as much as she wants," Brandy said. "Besides, she's saying some really interesting stuff, I'd love to hear more about her opinions on wizards. Almost makes me forget why we're in Hargeon in the first place."

Lucy looks up at this. "Oh, right, I almost forgot," she said. "You guys came here to find somebody, didn't you?"

"Technically," Brandy said, nodding to Natsu and Happy, " _they're_ here to find someone. I'm just here to make sure they don't do anything reckless." Or, at least, make a token effort in that direction.

"Aye!" Happy exclaimed. "We're looking for Igneel!"

"We heard a rumor that a salamander was gonna be coming through this town, so we came here to see him. Turns out it was somebody else." The disappointment in Natsu's voice was palpable, something Brandy could very much understand. If she had gone halfway across Fiore to find her father only to find some creepy passing parlor tricks and black market rings off as true magical prowess, she'd be pretty disappointed, too.

Happy nodded, pushing away the now-empty fish basket with his tiny blue paws. "Yeah, that guy didn't look like a salamander at all."

"No kidding. I bet that poser can't even breathe fire like a _real_ dragon."

"Uh." Lucy now looked thoroughly baffled. "I don't get it. Your friend Igneel looks like a dragon?"

Natsu swallowed the last bite of food and shook his head. "No, you got it all wrong, he said. "He doesn't _look_ like a dragon, he _is_ one."

"Aye, Igneel is a real live fire dragon!" Happy explained.

There was a few minutes of silence as Lucy processed this new and jarring information. Then, " _Why would a fire dragon show up in the middle of town?! It's totally ridiculous!"_

Natsu and Happy scrambled to find an answer, but found themselves at a loss. Brandy rubbed at the back of her head. "You know, part of me was wondering the same thing," she admitted to Natsu. "But I figured you know Igneel better than I do, so I trusted that if you thought someone was him, they would be. Kind of… really stupid in retrospect." Add yet another thing to the list of things her mother should have told her about. If she'd just sent a letter saying, "Igneel's not in Hargeon, don't even bother," she wouldn't have had to warn about Salamander's charm spell in the first place, because Brandy was only there to help look for Igneel. _Unless there's another reason I'm supposed to be here…_

"No kidding." Lucy glanced out the window before rifling through her purse and pulling out a handful of bills. She left them on the table next to the mountain of dishware and stood up.. "Well, I should get going. Enjoy the rest of your lunch, and maybe I'll see you around."

She headed for the door, where a petite brunette clad in a maid costume waited. "Thank you, ma'am," the brunette said politely. "Please come agai _ahh!_ " Her gaze had fallen on something over Lucy's shoulder, and the blonde turned around to see a reverent Natsu and Happy kneeling on the floor in the middle of the restaurant.

"Thank you for the food!" they chanted in unison, bowing their heads to the floor. Brandy simply tidied up her part of the table, not even bothering to spare a glance for their antics. _Just another day in the life of Natsu Dragneel's friend_ , she thinks. _I wish I had some extra cash to tip the staff. They deserve it, producing all this food on such a short notice…_

Lucy, meanwhile, was having precisely none of this nonsense. "Cut it out, you're embarrassing me!" she snapped. "Look, it's cool. You guys helped me out earlier. So let's just call it even!"

Natsu turned to Happy. "I feel bad, though, 'cause we weren't even trying to help her," he said in a not-so-quiet whisper that Lucy promptly facepalmed at.

"Aye," Happy agreed. "We owe her something."

Brandy could practically see the lightbulb go off in Natsu's head. "I know!" he exclaimed, mouth stretching wide into a trademark Natsu Grin. "Here, this is for you." He stuck his hand into his jacket, rifling about until he pulled out… the autograph from Salamander.

Lucy immediately fumed at the sight. "No way!" she shouted, before turning heel and storming off.

Brandy watched the door swing close behind her, leaving the restaurant in stunned silence for a few moments before the patrons resumed their previous conversations. After a couple more seconds, she sighed and stood up. Drawing her overcloak in around her to make sure that it didn't snag on a table or something, she headed out the door, pausing only to tell Natsu and Happy, "I'll meet back up with you later, don't break anything" before leaving.

Lucy was a little ways ahead, her golden-blonde hair swaying back and forth in the slight ocean breeze. "Lucy!" Brandy called out, weaving her way through the passing citizens. "Hold up!"

Lucy turned around at the sound of her name. "Oh, hey, Brandy," she said, slowing down to give the darker-haired woman time to catch up. "What's up?"

"Nothing much," Brandy said, matching pace with Lucy. The two girls walked down the street side-by-side, looking like night and day in appearances and no doubt drawing a couple of stares. The thought sent Brandy's skin crawling, but she ignored it as best she could and kept walking. "I just really wanted to thank you for buying us lunch. I know it couldn't have been cheap; Natsu eats like every meal is his last."

"Yeah, I noticed. Where does he even keep all that food?"

"Oh, that boy burns off food just as quickly as he eats it. I don't even know about Happy, though. That cat's like some sort of fish vacuum."

"Haha, yeah!" Lucy looked over at her. "It's kind of hard to believe that you're even friends with those two. You seem so… well, sane. Apart from the fact that you're wearing a big heavy cloak in the middle of July, I mean. Seriously, how are you not sweating yourself to death under that?"

"I'm used to wearing it," Brandy answered. "It's comfortable, and the heat doesn't really bother me that much. As for the whole 'being friends with Natsu' thing, well…" She gave Lucy a sly wink. "There's more to me than you might think at first. Besides, sometimes the people you like hanging out with the most are the people who are the least like you."

"Oh. I guess that makes sense." Lucy did a double take. "Wait, is this like a 'the friend you never thought you wanted' way or in a 'opposites attract' sort of way?"

The question was probably meant innocently enough, but the concept proposed was so ridiculous that Brandy couldn't help but burst into laughter at the very notion. "Oh, as if!" she gasped between bouts of hysteria. "I guess Natsu's handsome enough if you like hot-headed idiots, but he is _not_ my type! I like men and women that are a little more reserved, you know?" She wiped away the tears that had started to form at the corners of her eyes from laughing so hard, a painful grin still stretched across her dusk-brown cheeks. "I mean, not the completely stoic type, but just.. not _that_ , you know?" Now people really _were_ staring, their gazes drawn to the strange woman in the cloak too heavy for July, doubled over with laughter like she'd just been told the funniest joke in the world.

"Hey, it was a perfectly reasonable question," Lucy pouted. "There's no reason to act like it was so ridiculous."

"I'm sorry, but it was kind of funny," Brandy said. "I've known Natsu for seven years, he's more like an annoying little brother than anything else. Could you _really_ see us dating?"

Lucy stared at her. "I guess not," she admitted.

Brandy managed to straighten herself up. "I'm sure there's someone out there for him," she said, "assuming he cares enough about romance to look. But I'm definitely not that person." This line of conversation was starting to get a little awkward, so she switched gears. "But enough about that. You said that you were looking to become an official guild wizard, right? What sort of magic do you specialize in?"

"Hm? Oh!" Lucy reached for a keyring attached to her belt, and Brandy's eyes widened to the approximate size and roundness of coins when she realized just what those keys were. "I'm a Celestial wizard!" Lucy continued, completely oblivious to Brandy's awe. "I know it doesn't look like I've got a lot of Gate Keys, but I've already got three golden ones, which is actually super rare! Most Celestial wizards don't even get one!"

"That's… incredible!" Brandy gawked. "If you're a Celestial wizard, doesn't that mean you have an insane about of magical potential? I mean, you have to be pretty strong to open a gate, don't you?" No wonder this girl could spot a charm spell at a second glance. Celestial wizards were said to be some of the most rare and powerful Holder-type casters there were. Not in terms of direct spells, but due to the energy it took to summon their Celestial spirits, all of which were varied and strong in some manner.

"Weeeell, I don't know if I would go that far." Lucy's expression suggested that she wasn't nearly as averse to the praise as she was acting like she was. "Like I said, I'm still not an official wizard. I've been holding out for that special guild, you know? I mean, I could probably get into one of the smaller ones, but it's just my _dream_ , you know? Every time I see them in Sorcerer's Weekly, I think about how cool it would be to meet all of them and take on all those cool adventures and just- aaaah, I really hope I impress them enough to get in!" Lucy paused in her fangirling. "Wait, how do you know about Celestial Spirit magic?"

Oh, good, so she wasn't quite as unobservant as she seemed. Still, no need to drop the pretense of mundanity just yet. "My mother has a Celestial Gate Key," Brandy said. "One of the more common silver ones, and before you ask, no, I don't know which Gate it opens specifically. Mom's very protective of it, I shouldn't even be telling you this." It wasn't a lie by any means. Her mother really did have a key, but it also wasn't something her mother liked to make public knowledge, _especially_ to Celestial wizards for some reason. But to hell with it, she was feeling rebellious and bitter towards her mother . "Buuut I like you, and you managed to stifle Natsu's whining about his stomach for the next few hours, so I'm being nice."

"Oh!" Lucy said. "Your mom's a Celestial wizard? No wonder you know so much about magic and guilds." _Oh, you sweet summer child._ "But I don't understand, why would she want it keep that a secret?"

Brandy shook her head, dark brown locks tickling her jawline. "She wants to keep the key a secret because she's _not_ a Celestial wizard," she clarified. "Or, at least, that's my guess anyways. She says it's a family heirloom of some sort, so perhaps someone down the line was a Celestial wizard or something? I don't know, I've never been that interested in my ancestry."

"Oh." Lucy frowned a bit at this. "I guess I can understand wanting to keep a family heirloom safe, but a Gate Key really should be in the hands of a Celestial wizard who knows how to use it and how to make a contract with the spirit it summons."

"You can try and tell my mom that," Brandy suggested, sarcasm lacing her voice like a fine doily. "I'm sure she'll be more than willing to hand it over. Or she'll just lecture you about how she knows what's best for family and how the key's staying right where it is and how you're grounded to your room until dinnertime for good measure."

"Wow, she sounds pretty strict."

"'Strict' is one word for it. My mom…" Brandy cast about for the nicest possible way to phrase "is an arrogant snob who always lords her abilities over everyone, even master wizards far older and more experienced than her." "My mom holds herself and everyone around her to a very high standard," she settled on. "And mercy help you if you don't meet them. I don't talk to her that much because she's still all the way out in Ranuncolo, but it feels like she can't even send a letter without finding some way to berate me for something or anoth-"

Brandy froze in place, yellow gaze focused on something in the distance. The two girls had walked out far enough to where the boats docked at port were visible, and standing out among them all was a gleaming yacht, the sort only a self-aggrandizing celebrity wannabe like Salamander would have.

 _Board the boat, but do not drink the wine._

Her mother wouldn't have let her go to Hargeon in the first place if she didn't think there was something there worth doing.

"Of course," Brandy rambled, "I won't say that my mother's ego is completely unwarranted, she didn't get where is now by being incompetent at what she does. Look, I've got something I need to look into, it's pretty important, work stuff, you know how it is. It was nice meeting you, Lucy, maybe we'll see each other again, that'd be nice, okaytalktoyoulaterbye!"

Lucy stammered something out resembling a cross between a "goodbye" and a "what the heck," but Brandy was already halfway down the street, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts. Spiting her mother was one thing, but that man, Salamander… if that even _was_ his real name, and at this point she was seriously starting to doubt that… he had gotten his hands on illegal charm magic and had invited a bunch of enraptured people to his yacht for an ocean party. Even without her mother's wisdom, that had "shady" written all over it.

 _Just what the hell is this guy planning?_

* * *

 _A/N - Lots and lots of talking in this one, eh? It's important talking, though! It establishes characterization and stuff. A few things to touch base on this chapter:_

 _Tonjiru (or "bujitaru") is a type of Japanese pork and vegetable soup that's flavored with miso. I figured that since Fairy Tail is a Japanese show and Natsu seems to be eating quite a few Japanese dishes in the diner scene (or at least dishes you would reasonably find in Japan), it'd make sense to have Brandy eat a Japanese dish as well._

 _Everything mentioned about Triad's Foresight and its members is important later, so don't forget it. Those who read my Soul Eater fic know that I'm a big fan of hanging Chekov's Guns on the wall, so make sure to keep an eye on what sounds like throwaway details, because you never know when it's going to come back into play in a big way; maybe not even in the way you expect._

 _The part at the end about Cassandra being sly because she wanted Brandy to board the boat and get involved in shenanigans was a last-minute addition born out of necessity. Mostly because I was asking myself the same questions that Brandy was, and I needed to provide a plausible answer. My little sister always says one of my biggest strengths is the ability to write myself out of a corner. (She also says I'm a loser. Love you too, sis.) That won't be the first time I'll be writing myself out of a corner regarding Cassandra, I'm sure. Sneaky Cassandra._

 _The events of Episode One will run up through Chapter Four. After that, we get a bit of Episode 2, and then a little original adventure for a couple chapters. Chapter Three will be up soon. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _-Diana "Nocte"_


	4. Chapter 3

_A/N: Welp, there goes my buffer._

 _Chapter Three! This chapter cuts off a bit earlier than I had originally planned, for the sake of not bloating the wordcount (it's already over 5000 words with authors notes). You'll probably be able to figure out where the original cut-off point was when it's reached in the next chapter._

 _(Also for some reason my word processor kept auto-capitalizing words, regardless of whether or not it was technically grammatically correct, so if you see a word capitalized when it probably shouldn't be, my bad. It's mostly on dialogue tags.)_

 _In response to the guest who reviewed: Well… kinda? Sort of? If you look at my Soul Eater fic (and ignore the quality of the first few chapters - the wonders of two years of improvement, am I right?) you'll see that it's a mix of the canon storyline and original arcs, and that the characters have their own arcs and stories while being influenced by and being influences on the overarching canon plot. I intend for Skin Deep to be the same way. (In fact, Brandy'll have her own adventure while Lucy and Natsu are at Mt. Hakobe.)_ _I don't like to tamper too heavily with the storyline, as those events happen for a reason, but I intend for every character I made (and there are many, I have a list) to be more than just a Canon Tagalong. I mean, do you really think I would create an entire city and Guild if I wasn't going to do SOMETHING with both? :T_

 _If that's not your cup of tea or you're finding that the concept's grown a bit stale, I totally understand and won't hold it against you, but there's more to Skin Deep than meets the eye. (There's a brilliant parallel to be made about a store called Skin Deep having more depth that what's on the surface, but for the life of me I can figure out how to phrase it.)_

 _Buuuut we'll never actually get to all those characters and storylines if we just stand around talking all day, so let's get to the actual chapter! Notes are at the end of the page!_

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Chapter Three - Board the Boat**

* * *

It turned out that getting to the docks was a lot more difficult than she had originally imagined. _Wow, wandering off on your own chasing a vague lead in a town you've never been in and don't know the layout off? Who would have thought that would have turned out poorly?_ The way the city was set up meant there were a lot of interconnecting roads and pathways leading above each other, turning what should have been a relatively easy to navigate port town into a veritable labyrinth of cobblestone, leading her to get turned around several times. Every time she found herself passing the fashion boutique _again_ , her skin crawled with impatience and frustration and she had to take a couple minutes to pull herself together. She couldn't afford to fall apart this far away from the guild, especially over as something as petty as being a little lost.

By the time she had finally gotten to the docks, it was late in the evening and she had to deal with the crowds of well-dressed women pushing their way onto the boat. _Damn it, this isn't going to make getting to Salamander any easier. Oh, well, at least I'll be able to blend in a lit-_

"Hey, you in the cloak!"

 _-tle._ Brandy sighs and turns towards the burly hired muscle who had called to her. "Yes, sir?" She said, putting on her best "naive ingenue" face. "Is there a problem?"

"This is a formal event," the burly man said, pushing through to crowd to come face-to-face with her. "There's no way you're getting on the boat dressed like that." He jabbed a finger at the thick wool of her overcloak.

"Oh, sir, I'm so sorry." Brandy clasped her hands together, staring up at him with the best puppy-dog eyes she could muster. (A pretty difficult task, considering the pale yellow shade of her irises tended to be more off-putting than anything else.) "It's just that my only fancy dresses are currently at the cleaners - there was an incident with some champagne, you understand - and I really wanted to attend Salamander's party! He was just so _charming_ , back in the city. It would be an honor to meet him!" _Besides, his cloak isn't that much different. Sure, mine covers more, but the style's similar._

"Yeah, well, that's a real shame for you, isn't it? Sorry, but rules are rules. If we let just anyone on, there wouldn't be any room to move in. So beat it." The man said. He folded his arms over his chest, his expression all but screaming, "don't mess with me or you'll be taking a very salty bath." Brandy would have to be very careful about how she approached this. It would take just the right combination of words to convince this man to let her aboard.

Or she could just… "Are you _sure_ my outfit's not up to standard?" she asked, batting her eyelashes as she discretely pulled the hem of her overcloak aside, allowing just a glimpse at what she was wearing underneath. "I think it fits just nicely."

The man's cheeks reddened slightly, his gaze locked on what little she was showing. "Well… all right," he said. "But stay out of the way, you hear? I don't want you causing any sort of trouble. Master Salamander doesn't like hooligans on his ship."

 _I'm sure he doesn't_. "Oh, thank you so much!" Brandy exclaimed, allowing her cloak to fall back into place. "Don't worry, I'll be on my very best behavior!" The man grumbled in response and returned to his station, allowing her to slip back into the crowd and board the board without any further difficulty.

She was glad that worked. While she lacked the voluptuous figures that every other woman in this part of Fiore seemed to have (seriously, the bra industry must have been _booming_ ), she still liked to consider herself a fairly attractive young woman, and her usual outfit made no secret of it. _There's an upside to having a type of magic that requires large areas of uncovered skin,_ she thought as she made her way down the boat's deck.

She had to admit, it was a very nice party. Women in fancy dresses talked to each other and sipped some sort of fancy orange wine. The deck was strung with lights that cast a beautiful yellow glow across the polished wood, and the tablecloths were made of what seemed to be very high-quality fabric. Even the dishes were made of imported porcelain. "Wow, he really went the whole nine yards for this, didn't he?" Brandy murmured, passing between the tables and trying look as inconspicuous as a yellow-eyed woman wearing a heavy overcloak in July _can_ look. " This shouldn't be too difficult. I just have to find out what Salamander's up to and I'll be back with Natsu and Happy in no ti-"

"Hey, Brandy!"

"Huh?" Brandy turned around to see a familiar blonde dressed in a crimson gown that fit her body _very_ well, accentuating the curves of her chest and hips. "Lucy!" She exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question," Lucy said. "I thought you said you had work stuff to get done. Or was that just code for something?"

"N-no, I'm still working. You know how it gets sometimes, never know where your job will take you." Brandy fought to keep her gaze situated at an appropriate level. _No ogling pretty girls you just met, Brands. You're a woman on a mission, act like it._ "Especially in my line of work. But you didn't answer my question. I figured you'd be the last person to get on Salamander's boat; you were the one to figure out his little 'party trick,' if you'll forgive the pun."

"Yeaaaah, well," Lucy began, a sheepish expression on her face as she waved her hand up and down, "he found me and gave me a special invitation. I was going to tell the creep to buzz off, but then he said that he could get me into that guild! All I gotta do is play nice, and he'll help me join!"

"And you… believed him?"

"Well, yeah!" Lucy exclaimed. "See, it turns out that he's actually a member! He's not just any old fire wizard named Salamander, he's _Fairy Tail's Salamander_!"

 _What._ "What."

"I know, I couldn't believe it, either! I guess it's a bit odd that Fairy Tail would let a sleazeball like him into their guild, but I'm totally willing to kiss up to him a bit if it means I can get in. Not _too_ much, though, I mean, it's not like I'm going to _date_ him or anything."

Brandy barely heard half of what Lucy was telling her. _That man's pretending to be from Fairy Tail? And not just anyone from Fairy Tail, he's pretending to be…_ Suddenly, her mother's message was starting to make a little bit more sense. _Jeez, Mom, why didn't you just say "there's a dude sullying Fairy Tail's name, go kick his butt?"_ "Lucy, listen to me," she said, her voice dropping to an intense whisper as she met the other girl's coffee-brown gaze. "You can't trust that man. He's not-"

"Why, _hello_ , ladies."

 _Damn it, why do people keep interrupting me?!_ Brandy glowered over Lucy's shoulder at "Salamander," who had suddenly appeared from the crowd. "My dear, I'm so glad you could make it," the indigo-haired imposter told Lucy. "When I didn't see you right away, I was worried you decided not to come."

"And miss talking to one of Fairy Tail's most famous wizards?" Lucy said, a little too cheerfully to be genuine. She hadn't been joking about kissing up to him. "No way! I have _sooo_ many questions about your guild! I've always been a huge fan, you see!"

"Well, then. Why don't we head back to my quarters for a private drink, and I'll answer any questions you have? Assuming your friend here doesn't object too terribly." "Salamander" directed his attention to Brandy. "That's a strange choice of attire for a party. But don't worry," he reached out and took hold her chin, running a calloused thumb across her lower lip, "a girl with a face as pretty as yours can wear whatever she likes."

Brandy didn't answer; she just glared.

"Hm, not the talkative sort, are you?" "Salamander" removed his hand from her face, and it took all of Brandy's willpower not to instinctively jerk away, no matter how much his touching her made her skin writhe. As he steps back, "Salamander's" gaze flits down the the little bit of her throat visible underneath her cloak, and his eyes narrow dangerously. "Well, we'd best get going. Please, have some of the wine. It's some of the best wine Crocus has to offer." He wrapped an arm around Lucy's shoulder and started to leave, tugging the blonde along with him. "Ta ta!"

"Oh!" Lucy looked like she was trying very hard not to grimace at the contact. "Uh, sure. See you later, Brandy!"

"W-wait, Lucy!" But it was too late; "Salamander" and Lucy had already disappeared amongst the crowd. Brandy lifted a hand to the side of her neck. _Did he see?_ Her blood runs a little cold at the thought. If he saw, that meant he at least had an idea of who she was, which meant she wasn't going to be able to stay on this boat for too long. She'd have to make her move quickly.

She looked around, trying to find a good place to start. As she did, she noticed that the girls around her were starting to get a little sluggish, swaying on their feet. Were it any other party, she would have just chalked it up to the wine, but…

The wine! She remembered the final part of her mother's message to her. _Board the boat, but do not drink the wine._ And then there was "Salamander's" insistence that she should, infact, partake of the refreshments. _Did he put some sort of spell on the wine?_

Her suspicions were confirmed not a moment later when one of the girls slumped to the ground, snoring faintly. _Sleep magic. Bastard._

She had to do something. Her mind working overtime to come up with a plan, she moved across the deck until she "accidentally" bumped into one of the sleepy partygoers, a black-haired woman in a shimmery, ill-fitted blue gown, caused said woman to drop her spoon, and then "accidentally" stumbled and kicked said spoon under the nearest table for good measure. "Hhhey, wash where you're goin'," the woman slurred.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" Brandy said, lifting her hands. "I'm just such a klutz sometimes, I swear. D-don't worry, I'll get it for you!" She wasted no time in getting down on her hands and knees and crawling underneath the table, ignoring the peeved whispers of the women behind her.

Well, mostly ignoring them. _It's not a "potato sack," you uncultured wench, it's a Ranuncolo-made traveling cloak specially enchanted to protect from any skin irritants, and it's probably more expensive than that trashy number you call a dress._

As soon as she was completely hidden underneath the tablecloth, Brandy got to work, slipping a hand into her overcloak and opening up one of the several pouches she kept on her belt. "Come on, come on," she whispered. She pulled her hand out… and out followed a trail of rich, dark writing ink, floating in the air and chasing after her fingers. "There we go. Ink Magic: Ink Copy."

The ink reacted to the will of her magic, twisting and shaping itself into the rough shape of a person, and then refining itself into the shape of _her_. The pigments of the ink changed as well, replicating the soft browns of her skin, the dark sheen of her hair, and the greyish hue of her cloak. After a minute or so, a nearly perfect copy of her sat in front of her, with one difference: the eyes. Whereas her irises were yellow, the copy's irises were a flat, empty black, devoid of any variation in hue or shade. _I can never get the eyes right…_

The copy sat in front of her in patient silence, waiting for a command. So Brandy gave one. "I need you to go out there and give the girl in the shiny blue dress this," she said, grabbing the spoon off the floor and handing it to the copy. "Then I want you to pretend to drink some of the wine. Don't actually let it touch you, though; I don't want you diluting and giving everything away, you hear? A couple minutes after that, pretend like you've fallen asleep. You got that?"

The copy nodded. Not that she needed to ask the question or receive an answer; the copy was an automaton, lacking even the semi-sentience of a Construction, and would dutifully do whatever she needed it to until it was destroyed. Since it was so fragile, it made for a poor combat spell, but for subterfuge like this? Well, that's where her copy shown. "All right, then," Brandy whispered, pulling up the tablecloth slightly. "Get out there."

The fake Brandy scrambled out into the open, and the real Brandy curled up and made herself as small as she could, waiting for the right moment. The minutes ticked by, one by one, and with each passing moment came another _thump_ as a woman fell the floor, out like a light. She knew it was hopeless to try and wake them up; if sleep magic really was the cause behind this, they'd sleep through a stampede until the spell wore off.

Eventually, her copy slumped over, eyes closed and body still, barely visible from underneath the tablecloth. A gruff, masculine voice floated its way from the other side of the deck. "Heh. Think that's the last of them. Thought she'd never fall asleep." Brandleif recognized the voice as belonging to the man who'd confronted her earlier.

"Yeah, no kidding," a higher-pitched but still distinctly male voice answered. A pair of calloused hands reached into view and roughly pulled her copy out of view. "Yeesh, what's this chick wearing, some sort of potato sack?"

 _It's a traveling cloak, you bastard._

"Yeah, but check out what she's got under it."

There was the sound of rustling fabric, followed by a low whistle. "Damn. No wonder you let her on board." Brandy felt her stomach churn and her skin crawl with disgust. It took every ounce of self-control not to push so much ink down the men's' throats that they'd be coughing calligraphy for weeks. "The bossman's gonna be real thrilled with this haul, ain't he?"

"Hahaha, yeah! We're going to be rolling in jewels when we get to Bosco."

 _Jewels?_ Brandy's eyes widened. _Wait a minute… these men are slavers!_ She'd heard stories about how slavers would drug unsuspecting citizens and sell them off in Bosco. _Every woman on this boat is in danger… Lucy! She was having a private drink with the creep that's in charge!_ She clenches her fists underneath her cloak, waiting for the footsteps to fade away before quietly peeking out from underneath the tablecloth. "Salamander's" lackeys had gathered up all the unconscious women, including the fake Brandy, and were making their way towards the inner decks. Keeping quiet and keeping low so as not to draw attention to herself, she followed, slipping inside and ducking around a corner as the men headed for "Salamander's" quarters.

Inside, she could hear Lucy's determined voice. "Look, I don't wanna give you the wrong idea. _Yes_ , I really want to join the Fairy Tail guild, but I'm not going to _date_ you to make that happen."

She must have figured out about the sleep magic, Brandy reasoned. This girl was clever, a lot cleverer than Brandy had originally given her credit for.

"Salamander" let out a low chuckle. "You're quite a handful, aren't you?" He said, just as the lackeys pulled aside to curtains to reveal themselves and their sleeping hostages.

Lucy gasped audibly. "Brandy!" she exclaimed. She must have seen the copy. "What's going on here? Why is everyone unconscious?"

"Hmph. Welcome aboard my ship," "Salamander" said, all pretense of charm gone as the men started to dump the women into a corner of the spacious room. Unfortunately, Brandy's copy wasn't one of them, still tucked underneath the shoulder of the slimy-voiced man from the deck. "And you'd be wise to behave yourself until we make it to Bosco." The blue-haired wizard's voice took on a dangerous edge. " _Don't make me angry._ "

It was then that Brandy remembered that as sleazy as this man was, he was still a powerful enough fire wizard to successfully pose as one of Fairy Tail's strongest. She didn't really have a way to deal with that; her biggest issues had always been fire and water magic. Water would dilute her ink and fire would just evaporate it. _I could really use a Natsu right about now_ , she thought. _He'd_ be able to take on a fire wizard, no problem.

"We're going to Bosco?!" Lucy exclaimed. "You said you'd get me into Fairy Tail!"

"Salamander" scoffed. "Forget it. I just said that so I could lure you here and make you one of our slaves."

"How _could_ you?! You're gonna kidnap all these girls?"

The lackeys laughed in response. "That's out Salamander!" one of them, a bald man with thin lips and a patch over his right eye, said.

"We've got a big haul this time!" a man with a scar over his nose said.

"Why, you…!" There was the jingle of a keyring, and Brandy peeked around the corner to see that Lucy had pulled out her Celestial Keys. She was hopeful at first - she saw a couple gold keys on the ring, and those were the really powerful spirits - but her heart plummeted when "Salamander" conjured forth a whip of purple fire that smacked the keys right out of Lucy's hands.

The imposter caught the keyring, giving them an experimental shake. "These are Gate Keys. So you're a Celestial wizard," he said, a little impressed as he admired the artifacts in question. "Only the wizard who is contracted can use this magic, so these are absolutely useless to me." He tossed the keyring out the nearest window, where they went soaring into the sea below. "Whoops."

Brandy's blood boiled. How _dare_ this man mishandle a Holder-type wizard's magical items like that?! Some wizard he was.

When Lucy spoke again, her voice was trembling with uncontained fury, and angry tears streamed freely down her cheeks. "You used magic to take advantage of others," she said. " _You're the worst wizard alive!"_

A few of "Salamander's" men moved forward to angrily grab Lucy by the arms, and Brandy figured that now was as good a time as any to intervene. Before she could make her move, however, the ceiling of the quarters exploded, and a figure dropped in amongst the resulting dust and debris.

A very familiar figure, with a familiar red coat and a familiar dragonscale scarf and an _achingly_ familiar mop of spiky pink of hair.

 _Natsu!_

Lucy seemed to share Brandy's jolt of recognition. "Hey, I know you!" she exclaimed.

Natsu stood up, eyes burning with indignation as he stared down the imposter in front of him. He opened his mouth to speak…

And promptly doubled over, his face turning green as the motion sickness hit him. _Oh, right,_ Brandy thought with a sigh. _We're on a boat. Welp, better late than never. Copy, do your thing._

Her copy obeyed, opening its eyes and twisting out of the lackey's grip. As soon as its feet hit the floor, it jumped backwards, out of reach of the man's outstretched hands. "What?!" "Salamander" exclaimed. "She's awake? Why didn't you idiots make sure she was asleep?"

"She looked asleep when we grabbed her!"

"Then how do you explain _that?!_ Ugh, never mind, just get her!"

Three of the lackeys, one of whom being the gruff man from the docks, lunged for the copy, who maneuvered away with that same blank expression on its face. With each strike, the copy dodged, ducking and weaving around each fist aimed at its direction, all at the behest of the cloak-clad wizard calling the shots around the corner. For a few seconds, she had the upper hand.

But the copy was just that: a copy, a fragily ink facsimile. And when the gruff man finally landed a hit, his fist went straight through it, poking through the copy's chest and out the other end. "Brandy!" Lucy shrieked, her hands flying to her mouth.

"Huh?!" the man exclaimed. "I didn't think I was hitting _that_ hard!"

 _Well, crap. Time to step in._ "Return!" Brandy shouted, stepping away from the corner and casting her hand outwards. The copy melted back into basic black ink and flew to her fingertips. "Ink Magic: Solid Ink Halberd!" The ink shaped itself into the shape of a midnight-colored halberd and dropping in her outstretched palm. It was as hard as stone to the touch, but retained its lightness against her palm. She brandished the spear in front of her, a challenge gleaming in her yellow eyes as she stared "Salamander" and his lackeys down.

"W-wait." Lucy was now thoroughly confused. "Ink _what_? You mean you're a-"

A high-pitch voice piped up from above the destroyed ceiling before Brandy could answer, catching the attention of both women. "Brandy? Lucy? What're you two doing here?" Happy said as he hovered overhead, feathery white Aera wings outstretched.

"Oh, Happy!" Lucy said. "This jerk tricked me! He said he was gonna get me into Fairy Tail!" She paused for a second, actually taking in the scene in front of her. "Hold up, since when do you have _wings_?"

"There's no time for that," Brandy snapped. "Happy, take Lucy and get out of here. Natsu and I will stay here and fend off these creeps!"

Natsu groaned weakly.

"Correction: I will stay here and fend off these creeps!"

"Aye!" Happy twined his tail around Lucy's waist and pulled her into the sky. "Hold on!"

"Wha _aaaaaaaaa!_ " Lucy shrieked as she flew through the air behind the blue-furred cat.

"Salamander" and his goons stared dumbstruck for a few moments before "Salamander" snapped out of it. "After them!" he barked,running out towards the upper deck. "We can't let them report this to the magic council!" He summoned forth from a magic circle several streams of blazing purple fire. " _Prominence Whip!_ "

Brandy lunged forward with every intent of stopping him, but was cut-off by the gruff lackey. "You'll pay for making me look bad in front of the boss like that," he snarled. "I'm gonna do to you what I did to that weird puppet of yours."

"That so?" Brandy said. Giving the halberd a twirl, she dropped into the battle stance that Erza had taught her. _Stance low, feet apart, ready to block if you need to._ "Try me."

The lackey let out a roar and charged at her, swinging his fist in a wild and furious punch. Brandy caught his hand on her halberd's shaft and threw him off balance. She dodged his second and third punches with ease. "You're sloppy," she taunted. "Are you sure _you_ weren't the one drinking all the wine tonight?"

The lackey sneered. "You think I'm scared of you? I saw you cast that spell. That weapon's nothing but ink, just like that doppleganger!"

"Don't be so sure!" Brandy raised the halberd overhead and brought it down, striking the floor and splitting the wood at the lackey's feet. "I'm the best ink wizard you'll find outside Ranuncolo!" she shouted. "My Solid Ink is as sharp as steel and just as deadly!" Her eyes gleamed dangerously. "If you want, I'd be happy to demonstrate it for you."

A violet, firework-like explosion caught her attention, and she turned slightly to see that "Salamander's" flames had coalesced at a single point in the navy-blue sky. Her heart danced to a terrified beat for a second before she saw a speck of blue flying away from the blast, a red-clad speck trailing shortly behind. She sighed in relief.

"Urgh," "Salamander" groaned. "That cat's quicker than he looks."

"Hey, guys." A pallid and panting Natsu stumbled out of the quarters and onto the balcony deck. Despite his current state, there was a battle fire roaring in his olive-brown eyes. Now that he had the attention of those around him, Natsu made his move. Or, rather, he _tried_ to make his move. He was halted by the fact that they were still on a boat and Natsu took to all non-Happy modes of transportation about as well as a horse took to ice skating. He collapsed _again_ , and the lackeys jumped at the opportunity, crowding in and kicking at the pink-haired wizard.

"Forget about them," "Salamander" said, still staring up at where Lucy and Happy had been in the night sky. "Let's continue on towards Bosco."

"Oh really?! And what makes you think I'm just going to sit by and let that happen?" Brandy retorted with a have of her halberd.

"Salamander" laughed. "My dear, what makes you think you have a _choice?_ Your friend over there's useless, and unless you think you can take us all on and steer this boat back into port by yourself with that silly little spear…" He turned to face her, a wicked glint in his dark eyes. "You'd best just sit down and behave yourself. We wouldn't want you to get hurt."

Brandy gritted her teeth. "You think that making copies and polearms is all I can do?" she spat. "You haven't even seen a fraction of my magic! I could dismantle this entire vessel within minutes with the right spell!" Her skin crawled in anticipation, and a little voice in the back of her head piped up, just _begging_ for the imposter to give her a reason to really let loose. She backhanded that voice and shoved it into the little safe in the back of her mind where she kept all thoughts like that.

Natsu managed to recuperate long enough to block one of the lackeys' feet with the back of his forearm. "The Fairy Tail guild," he managed to spit out between struggling against the boot on his arm and his own nausea, " _you're_ a member?"

"Maybe I am," "Salamander" said. "What's it to you?" He didn't sound as sure of himself as he had a moment ago. His gaze flicked to Brandy for even the slightest moment, and it was then that she knew that he knew exactly who they were. _Looks like your little masquerade is falling apart,_ she thought with a grin. _All the fancy yachts and charm spells couldn't protect you from the truth._

As if to emphasis her point, the ocean below suddenly turned violent, churning and rocking to an increasingly frantic rhythm as a giant wave bore down upon them. Brandy swore underneath her breath and quickly crammed her ink back into her pouch and snapped it shut before wrapping her overcloak as tightly around herself as she could before the saltwater hit her. Her face was still exposed to the elements, but that was fine. At least, it was more fine than being entirely bared to the burn of the ocean water. _Where the hell did this come from? The weather's been perfectly calm all night! And… is it coming from the direction of the port?! What the hell?_

"Why is the sea so angry?" she heard "Salamander" shout, and it was the last thing she heard before the wall of water engulfed them all.

* * *

 _A/N: Whoops._

 _Here's where we get to see our first glimpse what Brandy's Ink Magic can do. When I was conceptualizing this character, I was going back and forth on what I wanted her magic to be. I eventually settled on a type of magic that evolved into the skillset she has now, which you'll see more of in the next chapter and further chapters._

 _Speaking about going back-and-forth, I was also on the fence about whether or not to put the air quotes around Salamander/Bora's name, as it felt like it would get obnoxious easily. Eventually I decided on it for character reasons; Brandy wouldn't consider him as being Salamander once she realized that he was pretending to be something she very damn well knew he wasn't._

 _The part about the bra industry was just a jab at Fairy Tail's… aesthetic, let's say. And by "aesthetic" I mean "I swear these girls go up a cup size with every arc." I mean it all in a loving way, of course. I do like Fairy Tail, bizarre bust proportions or no._

 _Bluhhh. There's so much I want to talk about, but I can't talk about it until next chapter! :( Oh well._

 _I'm fresh out of buffer (it didn't even last a week, what was even the point), so the next chapter will take a little bit longer to come out, but it'll be out, mark my words! In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _-Diana "Nocte"_


	5. Chapter 4

_A/N - So, um, I'm not sure what the deal is, but FFn didn't update the archives when I updated my chapter on the 14th, so chapter 3 never made it to the front page. So, for those of you watching for updates by stalking the archives like I do, this isn't an error. Chapter 3 is right over there on the previous chapter, updated and everything. FFn is just being finicky. (I think it might have had something to do with a last-minute edit I made on my phone messing with the system? Whoops.) So yeah, if you didn't read that, read that first and then come back here._

 _You done? Awesome. Now here's chapter four. Stuff is actually happening, holy crap!_

 _Notes will be at the end of the chapter._

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Chapter Four - The Snake and the Dragon**

* * *

"Uuuugh…"

Brandy's face _burned._ That was the first thing she noticed as she came to, the agonizing itching sensation that had turned her cheeks partially numb and the subsequent itching of her skin underneath the fabric of her cloak. "Nnngh, stupid saltwater," she groaned. _Why is the ocean salty, anyways? What good does that do anyone?_

The second thing she noticed was that the weight pressing against her midsection. Opening her eyes, she looked down she see that she had been partially pinned underneath the rubble of what was once most likely someone's house before a yacht had landed on top of it. _Because it's just not a trip with Natsu without severe property damage_. Thankfully, she hadn't taken any serious damage from either the saltwater or the crash. Her cloak was even still intact, save for a few tears near the hem that were easily repairable by Magnolia's local magic tailor.

The girls who had been on the boat were largely unharmed, simply equal parts dazed and scared as they began to rouse themselves from their magically-induced slumber. Once they realized what had happened, they got to their feet and ran, tossing their heels to the side to allow them to get the hell out of dodge without snapping an ankle. A crowd had begun to form around the scene on the beachfront, and Brandy couldn't blame them. A giant wave had appeared out of nowhere and _thrown_ a boat onto shore. That was sure to be the most interesting part of anyone's day around here. She could hear bits and pieces of the panicked words that spread throughout the growing masses.

" _What happened?"_

" _That ship was thrown into port!"_

Amidst it all, she could hear one voice clearly, splitting through the noise like a gunshot. " _Natsu!"_

Brandy looked up from where she was to see Lucy and Happy not too far away, running towards the wreckage of the ship. _Thank goodness they both made it out okay, at least,_ she thought. She noticed that Lucy was looking at something on top of the ship, and turned her gaze upwards to see Natsu standing on top of the tip, steady as can be. Even from here, she could see that the spark of determination had returned to his eyes.

Of course it had. The boat had stopped moving, after all.

"So you claimed to be a member of the Fairy Tail guild," he said to someone just out of Brandy's line of sight. Not that she needed to see who he was talking to to know. _That guy's still around, huh? Guess it was to much to hope that the wave might have tossed him into the ocean or something._ She squirmed around until she had rolled onto her stomach and could get a better look at the scene unfolding in front of her. Sure enough, "Salamander" and his men were pulling themselves out of the rubble, looking only a bit battered for their troubles.

"What's it to you?" "Salamander" repeated. He turned to his lackeys. "What are you lot just standing around for? Get him!"

"Yes, sir, boss!" A group of the hirelings split off from the rest and charged towards the pink-haired boy. Brandy recognized one of them as the gruff lackey from the docks, the one who had talked up a big game back on the boat.

"Oh, no you don't!" she shouted, flinging her hand out. "Ink Magic: Ink Whip!" Her ink flew out from her pouches underneath her cloak and shot towards the man, wrapping itself around his waist and arms and pulling him down to the ground where she waited. "Solid Ink!" At her behest, the ink hardened and trapped the man in its midnight embrace. "'Nothing but ink,'" Brandy said as the man turned his head to glare at her furiously. "I believe that's what you said, isn't it? We have a score to settle, buddy. Don't go rushing off just yet."

"Ha! You really think dragging me down here will make a difference?" the man crowed. "Your friend with the scarf is as good as dead!"

Brandy looked up over his head. "You sure about that?"

The man craned his neck to look over his shoulder, and his jaw dropped as he watched Natsu knock the remaining hirelings away with a single swing of his hand. He had removed his crimson overcoat at some point, revealing the usual purple-gold-and-white ensemble he wore underneath. "My name is Natsu," he shouted, "and I'm a Fairy Tail wizard! And I've _never_ seen you before!"

"Salamander" paled as his fears from earlier were realized. Even having seen Brandy's mark from under her overcloak earlier, he must have been under the impression that he could still charm his way through his con, or at least the very least make sure that she was too drugged to confront him about it. But the wrecked ship underneath his feet told a different tale.

"That mark on his arm!" The lackey with the eyepatch had zeroed in on the crimson Fairy Tail symbol on Natsu's right shoulder. "This guy's the real deal, Bora!"

" _Don't call me that, you fool!"_

 _So his name's Bora, huh?_ It certainly suited the blue-haired man better than "Salamander." An unimpressive name for a pathetically unimpressive man. Brandy actually recognized the name; she had heard the whispers floating around about how a man by that name had been unceremoniously booted from Titan Nose for bad behavior. It had been a bit surprising, as Titan Nose wasn't exactly Triad's Foresight in terms of the expectations it set for its members.

The gruff-voiced lackey turned to Brandy, his eyes narrowing as he realized exactly who he was up against. "Wait," he said, "if _he's_ a member of Fairy Tail, then that means _you…_ "

"Are _also_ a member of Fairy Tail, yes. Your deductive reasoning skills are mind-blowing, really," Brandy deadpanned. "Clearly, you boss hired you for your stellar intellect."

The man gritted his teeth and immediately started to struggle against the Solid Ink. "Why you… I'm not gonna let you disrespect me like that!"

Meanwhile, Natsu had started towards Bora and his remaining goons. "I have no idea what you're up to here, buddy," he began, "and I don't care if you're a good guy, bad guy, or what. I'm not gonna let you dirty the Fairy Tail guild's name!"

"And what are _you_ gonna do about it? Stop me?" Bora challenged with a smirk. He cast his arms out and summoned forth a giant magic circle. " _Prominence Typhoon!_ " At his behest, a tornado of violet flames burst from the circle and engulfed Natsu, causing an explosion that sent a another shower of debris onto the terrified onlookers.

Brandy grinned. _Idiot._

Bora let out a smug _hrmph_ and turned away from the inferno. "That's the way it goes," he said. "The bigger the talk, the weaker the man." He began to walk away when-

" _Augh, this is so gross!"_

Eyes widening in shock, Bora whirled around to see Natsu silhouetted against the fire, sucking in the flames like a vacuum would suck up a dust bunny. "Are you _sure_ that you're really a fire wizard?" he said through a mouthful of fire. "Because these are the nastiest flames I've ever tasted!" As Bora and his lackeys looked on, jaws practically touching the floor, Natsu swallowed the last of the flames with a belch and a sharp-toothed Natsu Grin. "Thanks for the grub, _poser._ "

"What's going on, who _is_ this kid?!" Bora shouted, staggering backwards in a last-ditch attempt to put as much space between him and Natsu as possible.

Natsu responded by walking forward, equaling the distance back out. "Now I've got a fire in my belly that's raging to get out!" he declared, slamming his fists together to call forth his own unique brand of magic circle, one with a fearsome depiction of a dragon's face in its center. "Fire… Dragon…" Taking a deep breath, he curled his hands and put them together to make a funnel directly in front of his mouth. " _Roar!"_ When he exhaled, it wasn't air that left his lungs, but _fire_ , roaring red-hot flames that hit the boat - and Bora - with the fury of the sun itself. There was a massive, brilliant explosion that forced Brandy to turn away to avoid being temporarily blinded, and when the smoke finally cleared there was hardly any of the boat left, just a pile of rubble and twitching hirelings. Unfortunately, Bora remained unharmed, having used his own fire to float out of the way of the blast.

"H-hey, Bora," one of the lackeys coughed. "I swear I've seen this guy before. The pink hair and the scaly-looking scarf… There's no doubt about it. He's _gotta_ be the real one!"

"W-what?!" the eyepatch lackey said. "You mean _that's_ Salamander? That kid is Fairy Tail's fire wizard?"

 _Good to see we're all on the same page. Now maybe we can finally wrap this up._ A sound reminiscent of shattering stone caught Brandy's attention, and she turned to see that the gruff lackey had broken free of the Solid Ink confining him. "Your friend could be the king of Fiore for I care! I'm still going to kick your butt!" he shouted.

"Ooh, I'm trembling in my boots," Brandy said. "Let's just get this over with." With a flourish, she pulled her overcloak off and cast it aside, revealing what lay underneath.

Before, when the majority of her figure was concealed, Brandleif Rorche had been largely unimpressive-looking. Anyone would looked at her would have seen just another traveler, perhaps a bit mad for wearing something so heavy in the summer, but otherwise ordinary. Now, however, was a whole other matter. She was clad in a leaf-green, halter-style tank-top, cut short enough to showcase the faint lines of her abdominal muscles and lined with a dark green hem, as well as a pair of dark brown leather short-shorts that were partially obscured by a lighter belt, a dozen or so pouches attached to said belt, and a piece of dark green fabric draped over one hip in a half-skirt style. One her right forearm was a thick, ribbed brown arm warmer that ended at the crease of her thumb, and on her feet, stretching up to her mid-thighs, was a pair of dark leather boots, styled to look more like plate armor than anything else.

But the most notable part of her appearance, standing out against the acorn-brown hues of her skin, was the spring green mark on the right side of her neck, the signature mark of the Fairy Tail guild and its inhabitants... and the ragged, ugly pink scar that split it right in half.

"Don't do it!" one of the lackeys shouted to his brazen comrade, who was unfazed by Brandy's display. "Don't you get it? Those yellow eyes, the scarred guild mark, that outfit… if that guy up there is Fairy Tail's Salamander, then _she_ must be Fairy Tail's Snake Charmer!"

"You think I care about that?!" the gruff man retorted. "This girl's been insulting me since the start, I'm not gonna let her get away with that."

"Oh, frailty, thy name is the masculine ego," Brandy sighed before calling forth the ink in her pouches. "I hope you enjoyed that peek back on the docks, because that's the last you'll see of any woman in a _long_ time. Ink Splash!" She tossed her ink forward, shouting out " _Solid Ink!"_ just as it hit the ground and splashed up around the man's feet, trapping him once more. "Now for the finishing touch." She raised her hand to her chest and pressed her fingers at the spot just below the hollow of her throat. "Magic Concealment Ink: _Dispell._ " The patch of skin underneath her fingers began to glow as a dark image became visible, a swirling, elaborate tattoo of a wolf stretching across her chest. As Brandy concentrated her energy, a magic circle began to form, as black as ink and spinning rapidly around her fingers. " _Construction Focus: Ink Tattoos! Come forth, Fenrir the Winter Wolf!"_

And lo, out from her skin burst a giant white wolf that landed on the pile of rubble with its hackles raised and its teeth bared into a snarl. Brandy could feel Lucy's stunned gaze on her, but she ignored it, choosing instead to focus on the more pressing matter of the man in front of her. His demeanor had done a complete one-eighty; instead of his previous cockiness, he was now staring at her in abject horror. "H-how did you do that?" he said.

"It's called 'magic,' you idiot," Brandy said. "This is what happens when you try to pick a fight with a Fairy Tail wizard." She tilted her head. "Fenrir?"

She didn't need to say anything more. Her Construction was tied to her subconscious, driven by her will and her will alone. Fenrir tipped his head back and let out a mighty howl before charging at the screaming lackey. He lacked his jaws around the man's ankle, shattering the Solid Ink in the process, and tossed him into the air. The man's hollering as he soared through the sky only spurred the Construction further, and Fenrir leapt into the air after him. As both man and wolf reached the peak of their arc, Fenrir drove his paws into the man's chest and pushed him down, the two hitting the ground once with enough force to send rubble flying everywhere. This last attacked knocked the man out cold, his breath leaving his lungs as a dazed wheeze.

"That should do the trick," Brandy said. "Fenrir, return!" The wolf complied, stepping away and turning to ribbons of ink that flew to Brandy's chest and sank into her skin, shaping themselves back into the tattoo they had originally been. She gritted her teeth against the painful sensation; returning a Construction to her body was never easy. "Magic Concealment Ink: Activate." The ink faded away, leaving only a faint redness to her skin where the ink had penetrated it. She liked to keep all her tattoos concealed; it gave her the element of surprise. She looked down at the quivering form of the lackey in front of her, lips twisting into a sneer. "Well, you were all talk, no action. Oh well, like boss, like goon." She turned a ferocious yellow glare on the lackeys who had been watching, her eyes glowing in the firelight. "Anyone _else_ want to give that a shot?"

The men recoiled under the intensity of her gaze. "N-no, ma'am!" one of them replied.

"Smart man. You'll go far with that attitude."

While she had been dealing with her opponent, Natsu was waging a fight of his own against Bora. "I hope you guys are paying attention," he said, calling forth flames to engulf his clenched fists. "This is what a Fairy Tail wizard can do! Here I come!"

He charged forth, dodging each and every blast from Bora's panicked scattering of fire blasts, before using his own fire to propel himself into the air and drive his fist into Bora's face hard enough to send him flying into the town below. Credit where credit was due, Bora got up quickly, shaking off the remains of the house he had landed on and facing Natsu as the latter landed on a nearby roof. " _Hell Prominence!"_ he shouted, pushing himself skywards with his flames and casting a massive ray of fire that carved a massive path of destruction across the length of Hargeon.

In his desperation, he missed Natsu by a good few feet, and the Dragon Slayer took advantage of this, catching and devouring Bora's follow-up attack. "Now that was a hefty meal!" he remarked. "You're not doing too bad, but I'm about to cook you like a smoked fish!"

" _You're gonna do what to me?!"_

"Get ready! _Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"_ Natsu charged upwards, his hand catching alight with a fire so intense it could only have come from the teachings of a dragon, and struck Bora hard enough to send him flying. The indigo-haired wizard crashed into the ground with such force that he bounced right back up, landing in the belltower of the town hall. Specifically landing in the _bell_ portion, the resounding gong signaling his defeat to all who were around to listen.

As the last echoes of the now-won battle quieted, Brandy headed over to where Lucy and Happy were standing. "Don't be silly, Natsu," Happy was saying. "Everyone knows you smoke food with smoke, not fire."

"Oh wow… that was amazing," Lucy said. "But he overdid it!"

Sure enough, a good portion of the town was in flames, and yet another part had been completely demolished. _Just another trip with Natsu._ "That's about the way of it," Brandy said. "Still wanna join Fairy Tail?"

"Well, yeah, of course, but… hey, wait a minute!" Lucy rounded on Brandy. "Why didn't you tell me you were in Fairy Tail? And what was with that wolf-thing?"

Brandy placed her hands on her hips, the corners of her lips tugging downwards in a fake offended frown. "By the time I knew it was relevant, you'd already gone off with that imposter," she said matter-of-factly. "As for that 'wolf-thing,' his name is _Fenrir._ "

"I know _that!_ I mean why is it in your skin?!"

"Uh, because that's where tattoos are _supposed_ to be? Where else am I gonna put a tattoo, my boots?" She knew what Lucy meant, but it was fun to tease.

"No, I mean… ugh!" Lucy rubbed at her forehead with her hands. "And here I thought you were the sane one, but you're just as crazy as he is!"

"Hey, hey, hey, I take offense to that! I kept my carnage to one dude who was pissing me off, look at what Natsu did!" Brandy gestured at the rest of the town. As if to emphasize her point, there was the sound of metal boots colliding against cobblestone, and Brandy glanced over to see a group of soldiers from the Fioran army marching down the street in formation. "Oh, hey, the army."

" _What?!"_ Lucy exclaimed.

A pale hand wrapped itself around the back of Brandy's halter strap, with its twin grabbing at Lucy's wrist and Natsu dragged the both of them along at a breakneck pace. "Holycrapwegottagetouttahere!" he shouted. Happy flew overhead, easily able to keep up with his Aera magic.

"Hey!" Lucy cried out. "Where the heck are you taking me?"

"Just come on! You just said you wanted to join the Fairy Tail guild, didn't ya?" As Lucy stared at him with large, awestruck eyes, Natsu beamed. "So let's go!"

After a moment, Lucy returned the smile. "All right!" she exclaimed.

So it was with light hearts that the four wizards, three by land and one by air, fled Hargeon, leaving only the burning ruins of the yacht behind them.

* * *

They were a half-mile out from Hargeon when Brandy realized something dreadfully important. "Stop!" she exclaimed. The others screeched to a halt and turned to face her, their gazes questioning.

She ran a hand through her hair. " _We forgot our luggage!"_

* * *

 _A/N - So remember how in the prologue, Brandy said she was studying Construction with a focus in ink, and not straight-up ink magic?_

 _Yup. Brandy studies two different but very closely intertwined forms of magic; her classic ink magic that she uses to make the ink copy and the Solid Ink, and ink-focused Construction. I'll go more into detail on what exactly Construction is and how it relates to Brandy's tattoo thing in later chapters, but in the meantime, I'd love to see some speculation on what the other tattoos she mentioned are! Hint: she has six total, including Fenrir the Winter Wolf._

 _Speaking of, one of the biggest parts of figuring out this fic was figuring out when exactly to reveal the tattoo thing. At first I was going to have it happen on Mt. Hakobe (the original mini-arc hadn't been a thing yet), but then I was planning on having it happen at Everlue's mansion, but then I just settled on having it happen after the boat crash. I've got a lot of things I want to build up to, but this was a card I could afford to play early without messing up anything else._

 _So let's talk about names! Mostly Brandleif's name; I bounced around with her name for a bit (her first name was Charmeen Rorche, and not Brandleif), but I eventually went with something that sounded a bit more Norse-inspired, to go with the theme that you can see with Fenrir. That's also where the "Brand" part comes in; I know tattoos and brands aren't the same thing, but they're both permanent marks in the skin, and "Tattooleif" is just silly._

 _I also added a couple lines of dialogue meant to smooth over a plot hole; I don't know if it was just a dubbing error or what, but Lucy never mentioned wanting to join Fairy Tail in Natsu's presence, so him knowing about that at the end is weird. Thus the dialogue between Lucy and Brandy about it. (Which was also really fun to right; Brandy, you snarky little wizard.)_

 _Chapter five will be up soon! In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review (on both this chapter and the last!)_

 _-Diana "Nocte"_


	6. Chapter 5

_A/N - Hey, uh, if anyone here likes Soul Eater, I just updated my fic for that. Wink. Wink._

 _Not much to say about this chapter until the end, so I'm just going to cut straight to the chase and thank Drachegirl14 for popping by and leaving a review! You're making me blush over here with all this talk of me being talented and stuff, awww. /w/ Don't talk about your work like that, I'm sure it's great! I'm really glad you like Brandy; she's definitely a lot different than Alecto and Tempus. As for your theory, it's definitely an interesting one, though I have one small correction to make; Ragnarok is the event in which the world ends. The snake that Thor fights and dies to at the end of the world is a lovely little fellow by the name of Jormungandr. There's definitely a reason why Brandy's called the Snake Charmer, but it's a fairly complicated reason. Though, there are definitely going be a few hints here and there. ;) You know how I am with foreshadowing and Chekov's Guns. Already set a few up. *further winks* *just winking up a storm over here*_

 _Notes will be at the end of the chapter._

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Chapter Five - Returning Home**

* * *

"I can't believe you guys made me go back to get your luggage."

"We didn't _make_ you. We asked politely because you were already heading back to get your own stuff."

"Yeah! Besides, it's not like the army was going to let us back into the city after what we just did."

"After what _you_ did, Natsu. All I did was hit a dude with a wolf."

"Well, Lucy threw a boat at the port!"

" _Shut up, cat! That was Aquarius and you know it!"_

There had barely been a moment of silence since the four mages had left Hargeon, save for the brief train ride in which Natsu had been too nauseous to do anything but groan miserably. Normally, Brandy would have found it irritating, but after the mess with Bora, she welcomed a bit of relentless banter. Besides, they were already in Magnolia, and it wasn't any too long before they reached the guild hall. She certainly wasn't going to start complaining now. "Speaking of which," she interjected, pausing in the middle of the cobble street. "Lucy?"

"Hm?" Lucy paused as well and glanced over at her.

Brandy stepped forward and placed her hands on Lucy's pale shoulders. "I really appreciate what you did," she said, "and if you hadn't crashed that boat with your Celestial spirit's tidal wave I don't think Natsu would have had the constitution to fight Bora. But please… _please_ , for my sake, never do that again."

"Uh…" Lucy was a bit dumbstruck. "Okay? I didn't really intend to throw it all the way to port. Is this because of Natsu's motion sickness?"

"No." Brandy adjusted the sleeve of her overcloak, which Lucy had been kind enough to retrieve from the dockside wreckage. "I've just got really sensitive skin, and saltwater makes me itch really badly. Like, imaging having a big old mosquito bite on your entire body. It's like that."

"Oh, wow, that is really bad," Lucy said. "Is it because of your tattoos?"

Brandy hesitated. "Yes." It wasn't _technically_ a lie. "Stick a bunch of Construction blueprints in your skin and it's bound to have some side effects, yeah?"

Lucy tilted her head, the tips of her dandelion-blonde hair swaying against her shoulders. "Huh. I guess that makes sense. How does your magic even work, anyway? I've never heard of ink magic that can do that."

"Well, it's a bit complicated, but basically-"

" _Hey, slowpokes!"_ Lucy and Brandy turned to see that Natsu and Happy were quite a ways ahead, waving at them. "Hurry up! You wanna get to the guild hall, right?"

"Heh, guess we'd better get going." Brandy pulled away. "I bet you're pretty excited to finally see Fairy Tail, huh?"

"You bet!" Lucy said with a huge smile. "Come on!" She grabbed Brandy's wrist and broke into a swift jog, pulling the ink wizard along behind her. Brandy couldn't help but smile at Lucy's enthusiasm; she had the sort of spunk that would help her fit right in among the members of Fairy Tail.

She just hoped that their guild's particular brand of rambunctiousness didn't drive her away…

* * *

"Here we are!"

By guild standards, the Fairy Tail hall was quite quaint, lacking the grandeur of places like Phantom Lord and Triad's Foresight's castle-like halls. That wasn't to say it didn't stand out among the surrounding buildings,towering three stories high with ivory walls and brick-red shingled. Three banners hung from the very top roof, the centermost banner displaying the Fairy Tail sigil proudly for miles around.. It was definitely a large and slightly opulent building, but it also had a welcoming quality about it, like a warm inn on a winter's night.

Lucy gazed up at it reverently, warm brown eyes shining as she took it all in. "Wow," she said. "It's beautiful."

"It's home," Brandy agreed.

Naturally, Natsu wasn't interesting in spending precious minutes standing outside admiring the architecture. He immediately charged forward and kicked the door in with a loud, "We made it back aliiive!"

"We're home!" Happy cheered, following close behind.

They were greeted by the warm welcomes of the guild members inside, a hundred smiles directed towards the returning wizards. As Brandy and Lucy crossed the hall threshold, Brandy's gaze turned straight towards the bar, where she knew he would be sitting. Sure enough, seated comfortably in his favorite stool with a tankard of mead in his hands, was Emmett Torhearth. He looked up at Natsu's fiery entrance, and as soon as he saw Brandy he gave a warm smile and raised his mug in a "welcome home" toast. Brandy grinned back and waved.

"So I heard you went all-out in Hargeon!" a thick-browed, buck-toothed mage by the name of Krov called out. "Had to go startin' trouble, di-" And that's as far as he got before his face became very intimate the sole of Natsu's sandal as the Dragon Slayer kicked him clear across the main hall and right into a table.

Lucy gaped in horror. "Why did you do that?" she squeaked.

 _Because he's Natsu,_ Brandy thought.

"You lied about that Salamander!" Natsu shouted. "I'm gonna kick your butt!"

Krov sat upright, pulling himself from the split and splintered wood. "Don't get mad at me, I'm not the one to blame here! I'm just passing along a rumor I heard!"

" _It was just a rumor?!_ "

"You wanna fight? Let's go!"

And just like that, the guild hall descending into utter chaos, with bystanders getting dragged into the fight between Krov and Natsu, which soon descended into an all-out free-for-all. "Now, now, Natsu," Happy chided. I think you need to calm doww _wwwwoaaaaaahhh!_ " A random mage had been tossed in his direction, sending the blue cat bouncing like a rubber ball.

 _This was exactly what I was afraid of._ Brandy glanced aside towards Lucy, expecting the blonde to look horrified or turned off by the display. Instead, to her surprise, Lucy looked completely awestruck. "Oh, wow," she said. "I'm actually standing inside the Fairy Tail guild hall!"

Well, if a bunch of contentious goofballs was what she was looking for, Fairy Tail certainly wasn't lacking. One of those very goofballs, a handsome young man with messy bluish-black hair and eyes who was wearing little more than his skivvies and pendant, got to his feet, a ferocious expression on his face. "So Natsu finally made it back, huh?"

Gray Fullbuster. One of Fairy Tail's resident Maker-Magic wizards, and a damn good one at that, able to conjure elaborate ice creations at the drop of a hat with a level of detail that matched even Triad Foresight's most famous Maker-Magic wizard in skill. He'd have garnered a lot of respect for his abilities, were it not for his unfortunate habit of unconsciously stripping down to his underwear at every opportunity. Lucy yelped at seeing Gray's state of undress, while Brandy merely rolled her eyes, having long since grown used to this. _At least he's nice to look at under all those clothes._ Not that she'd ever say that within earshot of him, of course.

"It's time we settled things once and for all!" Gray shouted, storming in the direction of the epicenter of the scuffle.

"Gray," a woman with lightly tanned skin and a thick mane of well-kept, chestnut-brown curls said from her position at the bar, a couple stools away from where Emmett sat. "Your clothes?"

" _I don't have time for that!"_

Said woman, a card-magic wizard by the name of Cana Alberona, sighed in exasperation. "You see? I don't date the men here because they have no class," she said, before tipping back a barrel of mead and chugging.

"Come here and fight me, Natsu!" Gray shouted, kicking a chair aside in his attempts to get at the pink-haired wizard, who was currently grappling with Krov.

"Not until you put some clothes on!" Natsu retorted.

The sound of wooden sandals hitting the floor with a powerful clacking sound signalled the arrival of none other than Elfman Strauss, one of the Strauss siblings. "It's only noon and you boys are already whining like spoiled babies." With sharp features, brilliant white hair, and a stature that made him tower over the rest of the members, Elfman was certainly an intimidating hulk of a man that usually cowed most people in a room with his mere presence; he was certainly scaring Lucy, if her dropped jaw and bulging eyes were any indication.

But there were few things in this world that could stop a Fairy Tail brawl, and Elfman Strauss was _not_ one of them. In a rare moment of teamwork, Gray and Natsu spun around to deliver a double hook right to his face, sending him flying across the hall. "They knocked him out that easily?" Lucy said, surprised.

"They can get pretty intense when they want to be," Brandy said. "Usually they're too busy hitting each other to bother hitting other people, though. You know how it is."

"Uh, not really, no. Are they always like this?!"

"Natsu and Gray? …Yup."

Lucy whimpered. "Oh, yay."

A familiar smooth voice drifted up from behind them, and Lucy and Brandy turned to see a red-haired, bespectacled man in an olive-green winter coat sitting on one of the benches lining the walls, a beautiful woman draped against each shoulder. "Geez, it's so noisy around here, huh?" he was saying. _Loke_ , Brandy thought, displeased. Fairy Tail's wannabe ladykiller, there wasn't a moment that went by that this guy wasn't trying to charm some woman or another, and there wasn't a moment that went by that said antics weren't _completely insufferable_. There was something else about him though; he seemed to keep himself under wraps, to the point where half the guild didn't even know what sort of magic he used. (Brandy was fairly certain it had something to do with his rings, but even she couldn't be sure.) She had also caught him staring at her once or twice out of the corner of his eye, his lips tugged down into a perplexed frown, as if she were some sort of puzzle that he hadn't found the edge pieces to yet. That annoyed her even more even than the flirting, and goodness knows she had had a few choice words to say to him when he had tried his pick-up lines on her.

To his credit, though, Loke was one of the few people in the guild disinterested in joining the fight, seeming perfectly content to sit back and relax with his ladyfriends. That is, until an empty glass went flying across the room and hitting him square in the face. "Are you alright?" one of the ladyfriends asked.

The red-haired wizard stood up from the bench, and Brandy could see the flicker of irritation in his eyes at the offending tableware before he went back into full Flirt Mode. "I'm gonna go fight," he said, "but only to protect you two." Brandy would be a liar if she said she wasn't at least a little bit jealous of the way he managed to work his charisma; the ladies seemed completely smitten with him, wishing him luck as he went to join the fray, and it was all genuine, not fabricated like Bora had done.

"He's definitely off my list," Lucy grumbled, crossing something off in a copy of Sorcerer's Weekly she had pulled out. She had now entered what Brandy liked to called the "broken pedestal stage" of her introduction to Fairy Tail. "What the heck is wrong with these people? There's not one sane person in the whole place!"

"Hey!"

"You have a _wolf_ living in your skin!"

"That's not how it works! That's not how anything works! And it's not _just_ a wolf, there are other tattoos, too!"

"You seriously have _more_ of those things?"

"Hello!" A new, melodious voice broke through Lucy and Brandy's bickering. "I haven't seen you around here before. Are you new?"

Lucy turned to see who it was, and Brandy had to suppress a snicker as she practically saw the hearts dancing in the Celestial wizard's eyes as she noticed the cerise-clad, shapely young woman with snow-white hair, the bangs of which were tied together up and out of her face. "It's Mirajane!" Lucy squealed. "In the flesh!"

Of course an avid reader or Sorcerer Weekly would recognize Mirajane Strauss, Fairy Tail's resident barkeeper and model. Many a reader bought the magazine solely because of her monthly centerfolds. "Oooh, a fangirl, huh?" Brandy teased, elbowing Lucy's ribs with a wink. "I didn't know you were the type, Lucy…"

"Wh- no! No! Shut up, it's not like that at all! I just like her photoshoots, that's all!"

"Her _bikini_ photoshoots, you mean? The ones where she's almost _naked…?_ "

Lucy had turned red as a beet "Y-you-!"

"Oh, Brandy, stop being so mean," Mirajane scolded playfully. There was a quiet, devilish glint in her soft indigo eyes before she added, "After all, just because _you're_ always staring at pretty girls doesn't mean everyone else is."

Now it was Brandy's turn to blush and stammer. "Oh yeah, w-well… y-you see… at least I'm not fighting like all the others are!" she snapped in a desperate attempt to change the topic, turning away and folding her arms over her chest with a pout.

While Mirajane's expression indicated that she wasn't taking the bait for a second, Lucy's attention was successfully diverted back to the brawl. "Yeah, um, don't you think we should to stop them or something?" she asked, pointing to the chaos.

"Oh, it's always like this around here," Mirajane said. "I just leave them alone. Besides-" She was cut off by a sudden Elfman barreling into her at high speeds, sending both siblings crashing into one of the few intact tables remaining. (Well, it _was_ one of the few intact ones, before a double dose of Strauss split it clean in two.) "Besides," Mirajane continued, a little strained but still beaming despite the fact that she was currently pinned underneath some two-hundred and fifty pounds of unconscious younger brother, "it's kind of fun, don't you think?" Then she passed out as well.

Lucy yelped. "Ah! Don't die, Mirajane!"

"Hey, there, kiddo."

Brandy turned upwards to see that Emmett had left the safety of his barstool and had ambled over to where the two girls stood. "Master Torhearth!" She exclaimed, her face splitting into a broad grin as she practically tackled her master, pulling him into an eager bear hug. "It's good to see you! How was your mission in Sycamore Village?"

Emmett ran a hand through his rumpled brown hair and shrugged. "Oh, it was fine. Those perytons were a jumpy bunch, but I managed to clear them out quickly enough." Judging from the way he was dressed, he must have just only recently come back. He was still clad in his traveling attire, a short-sleeved, half-tucked light brown shirt with a darker collar, a pair of pine green trousers, and brown leather boots. A pair of identically-brown leather bracers were laced over his forearms, concealing the guild mark on his right arm, and over it all he wore a plain gray travelling cloak, a traditional flowing-behind the back kind instead of the sleeved overcloak that Brandy was fond of. "Speaking of missions, how was your trip to Hargeon?" Emmett asked. "Did Natsu find whoever he was looking for?"

Brandy shook her head. "No. I guess it makes sense; Natsu's dad is a dragon, after all, and a dragon hanging around a human fishing village probably would have been bigger news, right? But we _did_ stop a human trafficking ring!" she added proudly. "Natsu totally kicked the ringleader's butt, and I got to bring Fenrir out for a bit!"

"That's great, Brandy! And there weren't any incidents?"

"Nope!"

"Excellent!" Emmett swiped a hand through Brandy's hair before turning his acorn-brown gaze to Lucy, who was watching the two with a bemused expression. "So who's this?"

"Hm? Oh!" Brandy clapped her hands together. "Master Torhearth, this is Lucy. She's here to join the guild. Lucy, this is my instructor, Emmett Torhearth! He's the one who taught me all about Construction! He's actually the best Construction wizard on this side of Fiore; they call him the Stone General, because his focus is stone soldiers and he can create dozens of Constructions from the same blueprint!" Her demeanor had changed radically; she was acting like a little girl bragging to all her friends about how cool her daddy's job was. The only difference being, she wasn't a little girl and Master Torhearth _definitely_ wasn't her father. "Only a few Construction wizards in the entire kingdom

Lucy stared at her like she had just grown two heads. "So he uses the same magic as you, but with stone instead of the tattoos? How does that work?"

"Oh, I'll explain more about it later, it's actually fairly complicated if you don't already know about it. By the way, you should probably duck."

"Wh- _gyaaah!_ " Lucy was knocked over by an even more naked than usual Gray, whose presence and nudity promptly and awkwardly ended the conversation at hand. Covering her eyes more for the sake of his last remaining thread of dignity than any personal sense of modesty she might have theoretically possessed (hey, she certainly wasn't complaining about the fact that her handsome male friend was constantly naked), Brandy sighed out, "Gray, where are your boxers?"

"Natsu's got 'em!" Gray replied, getting to his feet and pointing at the pink-haired wizard who was in fact twirling Gray's boxers in his hand. "Give me back my underwear, jerk!" he shouted over Lucy's appalled shriek.

"Come and get it, ice-for-brains!"

Gray gritted his teeth before turning to Brandy. "Hey, Brands, can I borrow your coat?"

"Ugh, you two are so obnoxious when you're bickering, you know that?" Brandy still slipped her overcloak off and tossed it to him. "You'd better take care of that, though, those things aren't cheap."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Gray pulled the coat on. It fit him poorly, having been tailored for a slender young woman and not a wiry dude several inches taller than her. But at least he had _something_ on as he jumped back into the fray to retrieve his underpants.

"Um," Lucy interjected, "am I the only one who bothered by the fact that _he's naked?!_ "

"Not anymore, he's not," Brandy said. "Besides, it happens. Next you'll be asking me if I'm bothered by the fact that the sky is blue."

"That's not even _remotely_ the same!"

"I know, right?" Loke said, swooping in out of nowhere and sweeping Lucy off her feet into a bridal-style embrace. (Lucy did not look as thrilled about this as Loke likely intended.) "These guys are all so insensitive. A woman has _needs._ "

Elfman responded by uppercutting Loke into the ceiling, sending Lucy tumbling to the floor in the process. "Real men speak with their _fists_ , Loke!"

Natsu promptly kicked Elfman in the face. "I told you to butt out!" he shouted, seconds before getting divebombed by Gray, who was still on Mission Retrieve Boxers.

Brandy and Emmett watched everything play out for a minute or so before the former turned to the latter. "Mom sent me a letter about Hargeon not long before I arrived there," she said. "She scolded me about constantly getting dragged into trouble and also hinted about what was going to happen with the slavers and how I could help stop it. In the most obtuse way possible, of course."

"Now, Brandy, don't talk about your mother that way," Emmett chided. "She's just trying to do her best to help you along without holding your hand through it all."

Brandy scoffed and crossed her arms. "You really think that's why she does it?" she asked. "Women's livelihoods were at risk, she could have stood to be a bit more direct. But no, she had to be all vague 'tee-hee look at me' about it and speak in nonsense riddles, all just so she can lord it over everyone when it turned out that she was right. Like, we get it, your a great wizard, everyone's in awe of your talents, yada yada. The least she could have done is let us know about what that dirtbag in Hargeon was planning."

Emmett regarded her with a weary sigh. He'd heard all of this before, every time Brandy got a letter from her mom. She almost felt bad for going to him to vent, especially since he clearly held her mother in a much higher regard than she did. But at least he _let_ her vent. Everyone else had already stopped listening to her complain years ago.

And yeah, maybe she complained a _bit_ much, but after getting dumped into someone else's lap at the lowest point in her life and then having to deal with being treated as the black mark on Triad Foresight's otherwise spotless record - which was bitterly hilarious, given what had happened to her father and Micah Onyx-Eye - she was entitled to a bit of Standard Teenage Grumpiness.

At least she wasn't tearing the place apart like everyone else. She wasn't the only one who'd grown tired of the brawl; Cana had actually turned away from her booze for a second to draw one of her magic cards in warning. "That's enough, you guys," she shouted over the din. "I suggest that you _knock it off._ "

Gray, who had thankfully retrieved his boxers, dropped into one of his Maker stances, one of his hands balled into a fist and pressed into the palm of his other hand. "Oh yeah?" he challenged. "Says who?"

Other wizards began to call forth their magic as well, with Elfman casting one of his partial Takeovers to turn his right arm into stone and Loke twisting one of his rings while muttering something about "such a nuisance." Brandy could feel Emmett ready his own magic in preparation for bringing forth a defensive Construction, but she wasn't worried until Natsu called forth his dragon's fire with a dangerous grin. She sighed and laid a hand on the flat of her abdomen, ready to bring out her powerhouse in case the place really did descend into a full-on caster fight.

Turned out it wasn't necessary, as a giant silhouetted foot came down to the ground floor with a earth-shaking crash, heralding the arrival of none other than the guild master himself, looming over the crowd. " _WOULD YOU FOOLS STOP BICKERING LIKE CHILDREN?"_ the giant boomed.

"Whoa," Lucy breathed. "He's huge!"

The guild collectively and obediently froze in place, leaving an echoing silence where the sounds of reckless skirmishing had been taking place not a moment before. Brandy and Emmett both relaxed, now that the air had cleared of hostility. Mirajane piped up. "I'm sorry, Master," she said. "I didn't know you were still here."

Lucy flinched at the realization. "Did you say _Master?!"_ she shouted, clearly fearful of the idea that the colossus towering over the lot was the guild's leader.

Only one person had the brass nerves necessary to disregard the master's clear warning, and to the surprise of exactly zero people it was Natsu, who had burst into uproarious laughter. "Man, talk about a bunch of babies!" he said. "Looks like I won this round, you lo- _ugh!"_ He was swiftly silenced by the master stomping on him.

Lucy hiccuped in terror, and the master's attention was drawn to her. " _WELL, SEEMS WE'VE A NEW RECRUIT,"_ he said, before releasing his spell. Steam rushed out of his shadowed form as he reared his head, let out a mighty shout… and promptly shrank down to his real size, revealing himself to be a diminutive old man with a bushy white mustache, pointy shoes and a twin-pointed hat with orange and blue stripes. He held up his hand in greeting to a dumbfounded Lucy. "Nice to meetcha!" he said cheerfully.

"Whoa, he's tiny!" Lucy exclaimed. "This little guy's really in charge here?!"

 _He's a lot more powerful than he looks,_ Brandy thought. They didn't make this "little guy" one of the Ten Wizard Saints for no reason.

"Of course he is! Allow me to introduce the Fairy Tail guild master, Makarov!"

The guild master in question silently turned away and leaped into the air, somersaulting up to the railing of the second floor. He cleared his throat, calling the attention of every wizard in the Guild. "You've gone and done it again!" Makarov shouted, waving around a sheaf of papers. "You bunch of clods! Just take a look at how much paperwork the Magic Council sent me this time! This is the biggest pile of complaints yet! _Have you lost your minds?!_ "

Brandy remembered what happened in Hargeon and immediately stared down at the floor, her face heating up as she tried her damndest to memorize the grooves in the wood.

"All you kids are good for is getting the higher-ups mad at me!" Makarov continued. As the rest of the guild joined Brandy in the Downward Glance of Shame, Makarov's expression turned from a furious one to a defiant one. "However," he said, setting the stack of complaints alight, "I say to _heck_ with the Magic Council!" He tossed the burning paperwork down for Natsu to leap up and catch in his mouth.

As the Dragon Slayer chewed on his meal, Makarov spoke, his head held high as he did. "Now, listen up. Any power that surpasses reason still comes from reason, right? Magic isn't some kind of miraculous power. It is a _talent_ that only works when the flow of energy inside of us and the flow of energy in the natural world are in perfect synchronization. The perform magic, one must have a strong mind, and the ability to focus. It should take over your being and come pouring out of your soul! If all we do is worry about following rules, then our magic will never progress! Now, don't let those blowhards on the Council scare you. Follow the path you _believe_ in!" Makarv grinned and shot his right hand into the air, pointing his thumb and index finger skywards in the Fairy Tail sign. "Because that's what makes the Fairy Tail guild number one!"

And with a brilliant cheer, everyone with the exception of Lucy and Emmett raised their hands as well. Brandy was among those people, his eyes shining with excited as she pointed her finger as high as she could. Because she may have been bitter towards her mother about the whole "making her someone else's problem after the incident" thing, but she wasn't mad about the end results, because in her act of cowardice, her mother's choice did one very good thing for Brandy.

It brought her to Fairy Tail.

* * *

 _A/N - Hey, Emmett! I like this guy, he's a character type I haven't gotten to write much. He's such a dad-like kind of guy. Y'all are going to see a lot of him over the next few chapters, so I hope you appreciate him as much as I do. This chapter covers a lot of Brandy's relationship with most of the other guild members, and the way she views each of them, but mostly it just establishes what her current relationship with Emmett is like now that she's no longer a ten-year-old hiding in his cloak. Gonna be seeing more of that in this upcoming mini-arc._

 _I also really like writing Mirajane. She's so sweet, but she's got juuust enough of a mischievous streak (like how she teases Wakaba about him being a flirt while also married), and she knows exactly how to make Brandy fluster. Not that it's hard; Brandy is one-third bluster, one-third fluster, and one-third genuine competence. (Also, Lucy is totally low-key bisexual in canon. Sooo much Les Yay. I mean, Brandy's bisexual, too, but she's not low-key about it at all.)_

 _Long story short, character dynamics are fun._

 _Did you know that the buck-toothed wizard in Episode 2 has a name? I certainly didn't at first, but I figured that everyone else in the Fairy Tail setting has one, so he was probably named somewhere. Sure enough, the Fairy Tail wiki has him listed as Krov. Good to know! Stuff like this makes it easier to write an established member of a guild; after eight years, Brandy should know the names of most if not all of the members._

 _The creature that Emmett mentions having to deal with, the peryton, is an alleged mythological creature described in the Book of Imaginary Beings. It's part deer, part bird, which felt like it would fit right in amongst the wild and wacky creatures of Fiore. Also, Sycamore Village isn't a canon village, I just made it up so I could have something to name-drop._

 _I'd intended for this to be a longer chapter, but once again, word count got in the way. Blaaaaargh._

 _Chapter Six will be up soon! In the meantime feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _-Diana "Nocte"_


	7. Chapter 6

_A/N - And here's where we start to delve into the original stuff a bit. Quick backstory, in one of the very earliest outlines for this fic, I had intended for Brandy (who had still been Charmeen at this point) to in the search for Macao and for the reveal of her tattoos to be on Mt. Hakobe during the fight with the Vulcan. Before then, she wouldn't have taken her traveling cloak off, thus hiding that she had them. She also had a lot more tattoos in this version, and she didn't conceal them with the Magic Concealment Ink. This all was also before the rules behind her tattoos (and Construction in general) had been solidly established, so her tattoos were closer to Reedus's Pict Magic than anything unique. I decided to change a lot of stuff and shift some things in this sequence around for ease's sake. Partially because the establishment of how her magic work changed a lot of things, but mostly because Brandy didn't really need to be at Mt. Hakobe, you know? She's got her own stuff to do, and I think it's more important to get a better establishment of the original characters, as opposed to just rehashing stuff with characters we already know everything about._

 _Thank you to Drachegirl14 for reviewing! Heh, yeah, Fairy Tail is not shy about catering to a yuri-loving fanbase. I don't know if it's inclusivity or fanservice or just that Mashima wanted to draw some half-naked ladies getting all up in each other's business or what, but hey, I'm always eager to poke at cool new possibilities for character interactions, so if every girl in Fairy Tail is bi as hell, I'm cool with that._

 _Notes will be at the end of this chapter._

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Chapter Six - Assessment**

* * *

"There you go!"

Lucy turned her hand back and forth, admiring the freshly-stamped pink Guild Mark on the back of her hand with echoes of delight glimmering in her eyes. "Oh, man!" she squealed. "Brandy, look!" She waved her hand in front of Brandy's face, beaming.

"Oooh, looks cool!" Brandy said. "It's a really nice color on you." She lifted her mug of water (she couldn't actually drink alcohol for a variety of reasons, the second-biggest of which the need to keep her mind as clear as possible should she ever need to suddenly use one of her Constructions) to her lips and smiled against the pewter rim. "You know, I was actually a bit worried that you'd do a runner after seeing what an average day at the guild hall is like." She exchanged a glance with Emmett, who was sitting to her right, still nursing his mead. "I know we're not the most _dignified_ of sorts, but…"

Lucy scoffed. "Are you kidding? I mean, yeah, I was a little freaked out at first because you guys are all _totally insane_ , but Master Makarov's speech was just so amazing and inspiring that I know I made the right choice with this guild! Besides," she added, "I've wanted to join the Fairy Tail guild for ages now. It's basically a dream come true for me!"

It was Mirajane's turn to beam at that. Well, beam more than usual; her default mode these days seemed to be "delighted to see you." Probably came with being a bartender. "I'm happy to hear that!" she said. "As an official member of the Fairy Tail guild, you'll be able to take jobs from our request board as well as access our magical resources!"

"Eeeeehee!" Lucy bounded over to the job board in question, where Natsu was busy scanning over the request board for something to do. "Hey, Natsu, look!" she exclaimed. "Mirajane just put the official Fairy Tail mark on my hand!"

Natsu seemed profoundly disinterested. "Oh yeah?" he said monotonously, not taking his olive-brown gaze away from the various fliers and letters nailed to the board. "That's cool. Welcome to the guild, Loony."

" _The name's Lucy!"_

"You should be more welcoming, Natsu," Brandy scolded, taking a sip of water. "Weren't you the one practically dragging her to the Guild in the first place?" She wasn't surprised about his sudden lack of regard; Natsu tended towards erratic mood swings that made his disposition a bit hard to predict. It'd been that way since as long as she'd known him, since he'd joined the guild a mere year after she had. She suspected that it had something to do with his Dragon Slayer Magic. Certain types of Caster Magic had a tendency to affect a wizards personality in various ways, and little enough was known about Dragon Slayer Magic that it was very much a possibility.

Or maybe it was just Natsu being Natsu. She wasn't an expert on Natsu. _No one_ was an expert on Natsu, and that was including Makarov. He was all but unprecedented; an orphan boy who had been adopted and raised by a dragon and taught how to eat fire the same way she ate a sandwich. Brandy had long since stopped questioning how he worked.

A familiar, slightly hoarse voice caught the attentions of both Brandy and Natsu, and the two turned to see Romeo Conbolt confronting Makarov, who was currently sitting on the counter and chugging a tankard of ale. "How come my dad hasn't come back yet?" the young boy with ink-blue haired asked. He was polite about it, but Brandy could see his hands shaking with worry. Romeo's father, Macao Conbolt, had gone off on a mission to clear out some Vulcans from Mt. Hakobe the week prior and hadn't returned.

Makarov let out a huff of annoyance. "You're starting to work my nerves, Romeo," he said. "You're a wizard's son, have faith in your father and wait patiently for him."

Telling a six-year-old to be patient was like telling a fish to learn how to walk on dry land: truly and utterly pointless. "But, sir," Romeo persisted, "he told me that he'd be back in three days! And he's been gone for over a week now!"

"If I remember correctly, he took the job on Mt. Hakobe," Makarov mused.

"That's right, and it's not that far from here, so why won't somebody go look for him?!"

Makarov's last thread of patience snapped like a long-dead twig. "Listen, kid!" he shouted, slamming the tankard down against the counter. "Your old man's a wizard! And like every other wizard in this guild, he can take care of himself! Now go home, have some milk and cookies, and _wait!_ "

For a couple of seconds, Romeo didn't say anything, just rolled his hands into fists and stood there. Then, with a cry of " _Jerk!"_ he punched Makarov square in the face, causing the diminutive guild master to topple to the ground. " _I hate you all!"_ Romeo wailed through his tears as he ran out the door.

"That's gotta be tough," Lucy murmured in the ensuing silence, her voice thick with sympathy.

"Yeah," Emmett said. He'd been listening in intently, clearly no doubt hopeful for news on the fire wizard's whereabouts. In addition to being Romeo's father, Macao was one of Emmett's close friends in the guild, a long-time drinking buddy of the Construction wizard. "Macao's a single dad, you know? His ex-wife, Enno, left the guild - and Macao - a few years back. So he and Romeo only really have each other in terms of family." His gaze was transfixed on the swirling ripples of his half-finished mead. "I can't even imagine what Romeo's gotta be feeling right now. Being a wizard is dangerous work, even for someone as skilled as Macao, and given how long it's been since he left for Hakobe..." He sighed. "No wonder the kid's panicked."

Brandy understood exactly where Romeo was coming from. While he wasn't her father - her real father had died when she was barely a toddler - Emmett had all but stepped into the role when Brandy was a little girl, back when they were still members of Triad's Foresight. She wouldn't know what to do if he just up and vanished during a mission. Luckily, Emmett's nigh-unmatched talents in the art of Construction meant that he was never truly alone when he went on solo missions. But Macao didn't have that luxury.

Mirajane stepped in, clearly trying to do damage control. "I know it sounds like the master doesn't care, but he really is worried."

 _BAM!_ Natsu slammed his fist into the job board hard enough to put a sizable dent in the corkboard, as well as crumple the flyer calling for help against some bandits that he had been eyeing up just moments before. "Whattya think you're doing?" one of the resident Seith wizards, perpetual procrastinator Nab Lasaro, demanded. "You almost broke the board, Natsu!"

 _Oh, as if you were going to take a job anyway._

Natsu didn't say a word, an uncharacteristic silence trailing after him as he grabbed his traveling pack and headed out the door, Happy trailing loyally behind. Brandy grimaced as she watched him leave; Natsu was a man of many dispositions, and this quiet, stern-faced _look_ he got when something was seriously eating at him was one of her least favorites. It was so… un-Natsu-ish; he was a man of hyperactivity and destructiveness, not _brooding_. It didn't suit him.

Nab groaned and leaned against the counter, where Makarov had resumed his drinking. "This doesn't look good, Master," he said. "You know how he can be. I bet he's going up to Mt. Hakobe to save Macao."

"When is that kid gonna ever gonna grow up?" Krov sighed.

"Who knows? Going after Macao isn't gonna do anything except hurt his pride," Nab said.

Makarov let out a low, contemplative _hrmmm_ , the kind only and old sage of a man could convincingly pull off. "Remember, Nab," he said, "we can't choose another's path. Just leave him be."

Brandy turned back to her water, her frown reflected in the rippling surface. If only things were that easy for her. _Her_ path had been decided for her a good eight years ago, when she and Emmett had been unceremoniously booted to Makarov's doorstep. And if she had learned anything from the incident and everything that came after, it was that the right to one's own path was hard earned and came with its own set of rules. Not to mention there was her mother, always standing over her shoulder in spirit and telling her what her fate would and should be.

She envied the other wizards for that, every day. They weren't bound to the rules of another. As much as she took pride in her own skills and abilities, she was still forced to toe a line carefully for fear of what would happen if she stumbled, even if that line had grown broader as she had grown older.

Her skin writhed ominously at the thought, and she promptly closed her eyes and focused on calming her nerves. _Think of a winter day, winter day… freshly fallen snow on the ground… that cute little puff of fog when you exhale…_ Thinking about the cold always soothed her skin.

Lucy's voice caught Brandy's attention, and she turned to see Lucy staring at the still-open door, gaze locked on the minuscule, faded silhouette in the distance that was the departing Natsu. "Why did Natsu get so upset?" she asked.

"Probably because he and Romeo have a lot in common," Mirajane answered quietly. Her back was turned so that none of the people sitting at the bar could see her face, but Brandy didn't need to see her to know the tender expression she was no doubt currently wearing. "I think he sees himself in Romeo. Just because we're members of Fairy Tail doesn't mean we don't have our own personal issues. We've all had our fair share of suffering and loss." She placed the cup she had been cleaning down on one of the shelves lining the wall behind the bar. "Many years ago, Natsu's father left and never came back. Well, technically it wasn't his real father, but the one who raised him. He was actually a dragon."

Lucy flinched, jaw dropping at this new information. "Wha-? He was a _what?!_ Natsu was really raised by a dragon?"

Mirajane nodded. "When he was a little boy, the dragon found him wandering the forest. He took him in, and taught him all about language, culture, and magic. But one day, the dragon disappeared and never returned."

Brandy could see the gears turning in Lucy's head as she began to put the pieces of the puzzle together. "So… that dragon must have been Igneel!" she said, looking over at Brandy. "That's why you guys were looking for him!"

"That's right," Mirajane said. "Natsu lives for the day that he'll finally see Igneel again. It's kind of cute, don't you think?" Mirajane finally turned to face them. "Anyway, that's probably why he's gone off to find Macao. He doesn't want Romeo to feel the same loss he did, you know?"

Brandy noticed how Emmett had gone very still, but she didn't question that. She assumed it was probably just because of how Macao was his friend.

"I see." A spark of determination had flickered to life in Lucy's dark eyes. She got to her feet, pushing the stool she had been sitting on away from the bar counter. "I'm going to go with him," she said. "He can't just go running off to who knows where all by himself."

"He's not going by himself," Brandy pointed out. "He's got Happy."

"Yeah, but Happy's a _cat._ "

"A cat with wings."

"Well, yeah, I guess that's a good point, but still. Besides, I wanna help that kid, too. It sounds like he's really worried about his dad, you know?" Lucy turned to leave. "Are you coming with? You were helping Natsu back in Hargeon, after all."

Brandy opened her mouth to speak, but before she could state that one "Natsu Trip" per week was plenty enough for her, Emmett's hand came down to rest upon her shoulders. "While I'm sure your eager to go running off to Hakobe, I'm afraid I'm going to have to put the kibosh in that," he said. "I've been meaning to take you out on a mission to assess your progress in forming your Constructions. Now's as good a time as any."

 _Note to self: thank Emmett later._ "Well, you heard the mentor," Brandy said. "Don't worry; you three will be able to handle anything that Hakobe will throw at you."

"Okay, then." Lucy accepted that answer with a nod. "See you later!"

"Same!" Brandy waved her new guildmate a cheery farewell as the blonde headed out the door after their mutual fiery friend. Once Lucy left, she turned to Emmett. "So what sort of mission did you have in mind?"

"Well," Emmett stood up, heading towards the damaged request board, "this is an assessment mission, so it can't be something too high stakes, but it shouldn't be one of those missions that you can do in your sleep, either, you know?" His acorn-brown gaze scanned each and every leaflet and flier until he came across one he liked. "A-ha! How about this one?" He ripped the paper off the board and held it out to Brandy for her to read.

Brandy leaned forward and tilted her head slightly as she read the flier. Apparently, a group of miners working in the Ajisai Mountains had unearthed some sort of ruin littered with magical traps when working, and they wanted some experienced wizards to come in and see if it was worth investigating further. They were offering an additional jewel reward if the wizards identified and eliminated any threats within the cave, the exact amount to be negotiated upon completion of the job. "That does sound pretty interesting," she said. "I guess we could send anything we find over to Triad's Foresight and let the magical scholars over there take a look at it?"

Emmett nodded. "That's what I was thinking. I can think of a wizard or two in Ranuncolo who would be very interested in this place, even if purely from an archaeological standpoint. Besides, the town next to the mind is home to a pretty important metal mill that produces a lot of important metals for building and crafting. Iron, steel, copper, the works. It's not the only metal mil in Fiore, but it's important enough that a halt in productivity could cause a lot of trouble for the market as a whole. So, are you up for it?"

Brandy considered it for a moment. Most people wouldn't consider navigated a magically trapped ruin to be a low-stress mission, but most people didn't spend their Saturdays having to deal with the fallout of Natsu destroying yet another street or town district. Compared to that, magic traps were practically a cakewalk. And the two Construction wizards had both the wits and the spellpower to handle whatever the old caves could throw at them.

After all, they didn't call Emmett Torhearth Fairy Tail's Stone General just because it sounded cool.

(Even though it did sound pretty cool; way better than her epithet, at least.)

After a minute, Brandy nodded decisively. "Yeah!" she said.

"Great!" Emmett turned his attention towards Makarov. "Hey, Master Makarov! Me and Brandy are going to take the job out in the Ajisai Mountains, if that's okay with you."

Makarov nodded his assent. "Alright, but be careful. We've already got enough of our wizards wandering around mountains," he said, before downing the rest of his ale.

"Well, that settles it, then!" Emmett folded the flier up and tucked it into his shirt. "Let's get a move on while the sun's still shining, shall we? Don't want to keep the miners waiting."

* * *

 _A/N - The Ajisai Mountains continue the grand Fiore tradition of having everything be named after plants; Ajisai is the Japanese name for the Hydrangea flowers. I gotta admit, it's fun having pre-established naming conventions on place; it's a neat challenge to try and create original locations that still sound like they'd actually fit in the Fairy Tail universe._

 _There's something very relaxing about writing Emmett; he's a pretty easy-going dude on the surface, and I don't get to write many father figures, so he's a bit of a refreshing challenge. He's also pretty important, and this next mini-arc is going to be just as much for development as it is for Brandy's, in terms of both his personality and his capabilities as the Stone General of Fairy Tail. Not to say that there's not going to be plenty of development for Brandy in both those departments, of course._

 _Hm, there's not much to say about this chapter beyond that. It's pretty short (the shortest chapter so far, actually), and really only serves the purpose of pushing characters towards where they need to be for the next mini-arc. The woes of transitional chapters, I guess. Don't' worry, the next couple of chapters will have a lot more worth talking about. I've decided that I'm going to update Skin Deep three times and then Tempus Fugit once until I get the two at about an equal chapter ratio, then I'll switch between the two every chapter. So, chapter seven will be uploaded, and then I'll write TF chapter forty-six, and then work on Skin Deep chapters eight, nine, and ten, then write TF chapter forty-seven, and so forth._

 _So, with that in mind, chapter seven will be up soon! In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _-Diana "Nocte"_


	8. Chapter 7

_A/N - So, uh. Homestuck ended recently. That was a thing. I may have cried like a toddler a bit. A lot. HUSSSSIIIIIIIEEEEEEE. Stop making me feel emotions. :(_

 _Also, sorry for the delay. We're back on track!_

 _So on the topic of this fic, this little arc I'm doing should take about two or three chapters, counting this one, depending on how long each chapter is and how much I want to cover. Like I said in the A/N of last chapter, I'll be working on a chapter of Tempus Fugit in between this chapter and the next one, so chapter eight miiight be a bit slower to release, depending on how fast I can finish that chapter._

 _Thank you to animexxfreakxx, Z0mbieMart, and Derples for leaving lovely reviews!_

 _animexxfreakxx: Aww, why thank you! It's always awesome to hear when I have readers in other parts of the world. Sometimes me and my sister go over the views page and marvel at all the various places I'm getting hitcounts from! I'm also glad you like Brandy's magic, as figuring it out exactly was quite a fun little adventure. I wanted to create something that was unique, but still felt like it could fit within the setting. I asked myself, "what's an obscure thing to draw magic from that other people probably haven't used much of?" And then I settled on ink! Eventually that led into the tattoos, as tattoos are made from a variant of ink and all that. And yeah, there are lot of Dragon Slayer OCs around, aren't there? Not that I'm complaining, and I can totally see why. It's called "Dragon Slayer" magic, for chrissakes, that's just awesome._

 _Z0mbieMart: Hahah, thank you! ^_^ To be fair, it's not surprising that I don't have a lot of reviews; Tempus Fugit didn't start out with a lot of reviews, either. OC fics are hard to sell on people, you know? I do hope I make enough people want to keep reading, and I'm glad to hear that people seem to really enjoy Brandy so far._

 _Derples: That's a mighty big compliment, coming from you! ^_^ I've been a big fan of The Ice Slayer for a good while now, and it's actually the fanfiction that spurned me to start posting chapters of Skin Deep! (I had planned to wait until Tempus Fugit was done and over with, but that's probably not happening any time soon.)_

* * *

 **Chapter Seven - Ajisai**

* * *

The Ajisai mountain range was a small offshoot of the cluster of mountains to the west of Magnolia, somewhere between the city that Fairy Tail was located and the heart of Fiore itself, Crocus. It wasn't that far of a carriage ride from the guild; Brandy and Emmett left the city at nearly noonish, and by mid-afternoon had reached the first roll of land that heralded the mountains growing steadily in the distance.

It was a quiet carriage ride for the most part; only near the end did Emmett speak up. "So, what _did_ happen in Hargeon, anyway? How'd you get wrapped up in a human trafficking ring, of all things?"

Brandy raised an eyebrow at him. "How do I get wrapped up in _anything?_ " she quipped. "Either Gray or Natsu end up dragging me along on some wild and crazy adventure, or Mom sends me a vague letter. In this case, it was both." She leaned back against the seat of the carriage, folding her arms over her chest. "Like I said, we didn't find Igneel. But we did find some dude who was pretending to be Fairy Tail's Salamander. He was using charm magic to trick women into admiring him and going to a 'party' on his yacht, where he drugged them so they would fall asleep and he could take them to Bosco. Natsu and I actually met Lucy in the crowd that Bora - that's the dude who was pretending to be from Fairy Tail - had drawn. Anyway, I snuck on board the yacht to figure out what he was up to, stuff happened, Natsu redefined the term 'party crasher,' Lucy summoned a celestial spirit that conjured a tsunami to throw the boat into port, and then Natsu kicked a bunch of dudes' butts. And also I summoned Fenrir, which is always fun."

But Emmett was only interested in only one part of her story; he had jerked his head up at the mention of the tidal wave, his brows knitting together over his piercing, concerned gaze. "Wait, Lucy summoned a _who_ to conjure a _what?_ "

 _Oh, boy, here we go._ She should have left that part out. Her and her big mouth. "Master Torhearth, it's _fine_ -" she began.

Emmett cut her off. "It's not okay," he insisted. "You were on a boat over the ocean, Brandy. Why didn't you mention this sooner? You didn't get knocked into the water, did you?"

He had gone Full Dad Mode (something he managed to do surprisingly well, considering that as far as she knew he had no children), and while Brandy generally appreciated having a concerned fatherly figure in her life as her father had died a good decade and a half ago, she didn't really want to get a lecture on safety measures in a cramped carriage traveling across a particularly bumpy patch of road. "Well, _yes_ , but it's totally fine!" She held up her hands to keep Emmett from launching into a session of asking a million unnecessary questions. "Like I said back at the guild, there weren't any incidents, and I had my cloak on, so most of my skin didn't even get wet! My face itched for a while, but that's not really a big deal since that's not where the root of the problem lies, anyways!"

Emmett didn't seem wholly satisfied with that answer, and unease laced his expression even has he settled back into his seat. "If you say so. Does Lucy know?"

"About my skin sensitivities?" Brandy's intense stare all but bored a hole straight between Emmett's eyes. "Or the reason behind them?"

"Both, I guess."

"She knows that I have some sort of issue that causes my skin to react poorly to stuff like salt water. She assumed that it was because of the tattoos, and I didn't see any reason to correct her. Why, do you think I _should_ have told her?"

"That's up to you. I do think that you should at least give her a heads up before an incident occurs, but in the end it's in your hands and it's up to you to decide when and how you want her to know, if at all. You're not a ten-year-old hiding in my cloak anymore. You're a grown woman, Brandleif. You can make your own choices."

Brandy turned red and stared down and her hands, clasped neatly across her lap. It was a far cry from the patronizing missives she got from her mother. She wanted to say something, _anything_ that would let Emmett know how much she appreciated his lifelong support of her, but before she could the carriage jolted to a halt, jostling the two wizards. "Looks like we're here," Emmett said. "The miners will be able to tell us more about what's going on in the tunnels. Come on."

He stood up, stooping a bit to avoid knocking his head against the carriage roof, and made his way to head outside. Brandy lingered behind for a second before blurting out, "Master Torhearth?"

Emmett turned around. "Hm?"

"I… Thank you. For sticking around."

A soft smile stretched across Emmett's face, and his reached out to ruffle Brandy's short, dark hair. "Of course, kiddo. I wouldn't just up and leave you to fend for yourself, would I?"

 _No,_ Brandy thought, mirroring his expression. _No, you wouldn't._

* * *

"Slow down. What happened?"

The miner blinked away his tears, still clutching at his pickaxe the way a small child clutched at a security blanket. "W-we were digging for ore, and we broke through to this s-sort of… cave-y like thing, a-and there was a door at the end and we opened it and… and…" He broke into horrified sobs once more.

Emmett reached forward and placed a comforting hand on the man's shoulder. "Hey, it's okay," he said quietly. "Fairy Tail's not gonna let anything else happen to you or any of the other miners. Just tell us what happened and we can go take care of it."

"R-r-right. We opened the door and then there was this… s-some form of dark energy. We didn't understand it, but it scared the heck out of us, it was like there was something _in_ there, just… waiting." The miner shuddered at the memory. "It felt like our hearts were freezing over. So we ran, and contacted all the guilds we could reach."

Brandy exchanged a glance with Emmett. What sort of presence lurked inside the ruins, so malicious that it could terrify this miner so? Why had it been locked underground, and by whom? There were surely defenses keeping it from escaping, assuming it was a thing that _could_ hypothetically escape; how difficult would they be to surpass? With so little information, how could they possibly be prepared for what lay underneath?

But it was all they had, and there was no use in turning back simply because they didn't understand the threat. Fairy Tail had a reputation to uphold, and it wasn't a reputation of being a bunch of cowards. "Thanks," Brandy said. "We'll take it from here. Don't worry; your mine will be back to working order before you can so much as say 'hello!'" She shot her most confident smile at the miner, and he seemed to relax at her conviction. "Now, which way is the mine?"

"That way." The miner gestured to the eastern side of town. "P-please be careful. We don't know what's in there If something happened to you..."

Emmett shook his head. "It won't," he said. "And nothing will happen to this town, either. You have our word on that." He turned and headed in the direction that the miner had pointed towards, with Brandy trailing fast on his heels.

As they walked through the streets, Brandy noticed just how _gray_ everything was. It was if a giant had come and spread a bedsheet of soot over the whole town, staining the wood of the buildings and the stone of the surrounding mountains. There was various bits of machinery everywhere, most prominently from the large ore refinery in the center of town, chugging out smoke as the metal bits and bobs inside did their work. She didn't sense a whole lot of magic being used; this vital little town had relied on self-made technological advancements to get to where they were now. _Machinery without magic… it's impressive, in its own strange way._

She had also noticed how many of the townspeople had come out of the homes to witness the two wizards pass by. The people were gray too, sallow and washed-out with dull clothes and dull eyes. "They're watching," she murmured, barely loud enough for Emmett to hear."

"Well, barely any wizards pass this way," Emmett replied just as quietly. "Actually, this town doesn't have any magic or magical devices in it at all. We're probably the first real wizards they've seen in years. We're a novelty."

"Mm." Brandy was still disquieted by the people staring at them. Everything was silent for a few moments until a young boy with silvery hair broke free from his mother's grasp and came running towards them. "Hey!" he shouted. "Heyyyy!"

Brandy and Emmett stopped as the boy skidded to a halt in front of them. As he did, he kicked up a cloud of dust and dirt large and thick enough to make Brandy grateful for her anti-irritant cloak. "Is something okay, kid?" Emmett asked.

"Well.. it's just…" The boy, suddenly afflicted with a terrible case of shyness, stared down at his feet. "Are you really wizards?" he blurted. "Like, can you do magic?"

Emmett smiled softly at this. "Yes, we really are wizards," he said. "We come from the magical guild called Fairy Tail, where lots of wizards hang out and go on jobs like this together."

The boy looked back up. His eyes (which were a startling shade of green that stood out against the grays of the town) were wide with wonder. "No way!" he shouted. "That's so cool! I've never met a real live wizard before! What sort of magic do you guys do?"

"We're Construction wizards," Brandy said. "We create magical beings out of various substances to do our bidding for us."

"Whoa!" She hadn't thought it would be possible for the boy's eyes to grow any larger than they already were, but grow they did. "Can you show me? Pleeeease please please please!"

"Albert Hollyhock!" the boy's mother scolded, her hands on her hips. "Leave the wizards alone, they have a very important job to do."

"Aw, but mom!" the boy, Albert, whined. "It'll only be a second! Pleaaaase?"

On the one hand, the longer they let the problem in the mines fester, the higher the chance of it causing the town real trouble was. On the other hand, Albert couldn't have been older than nine, and it would have been a terrible shame to disappoint him like that. Brandy snuck a peek at Emmett's face and had to repress a giggle as she saw the distressed look on his face. He was always such a softie when it came to crying children. Perhaps that was her fault; she had been such a shy and anxious little girl that seeing a sad child nowadays seemed to trigger something in him.

Sure enough, he caved mere moments later. "I suppose one demonstration couldn't hurt," he said, rubbing at the back of his head sheepishly. "Brandy, do you wanna do it, or should I?"

"I think yours would be a bit more impressive to the crowd, don't you think?" Brandy said, gesturing to the cluster of people that had gathered around them.

"Good point." Emmett directed his attention back to the boy. "You're going to want to move out of the way, okay? I need a bit of space if I'm going to show off."

"Uh, okay!" Albert nodded and scurried off to a safe distance, and Brandy moved a little ways away herself, giving her mentor the room he needed to work his magic.

Once he had the necessary space, Emmett rolled his shoulders and dropped into his stance, with his body bent low and his feet spread wide apart. A magic circle sprung to life at his fingertips, a stone-gray in color and rapidly spinning about. "Here we go," he muttered, and then slammed the palm of his hand into the ground. " _Construction Focus: Stone Soldiers! Come forth, Stone Pikeman!"_

The ground began to rumble, with tiny pebbles dancing and jumping across the shaking street. There was a series of gasps from the crowd as the villagers searched for the cause of the disruption. After a few moments, the ground immediately in front of Emmett burst open and a stone figure clad in stone armor rose up, a pike gripped tightly in its gray hand. The figure best resembled an old stone statue, with a nondescript but still recognizable human face and a weathered look to its pseudo-armor. With a sound like flint striking flint, the Stone Pikeman turned around to face Emmett and dropped to one knee, awaiting its general's commands.

"Whooooaaaa!" Albert's jaw had dropped. "That's so cool! And it does whatever you want it to?"

"To an extent. Each Construction has its own specialty. The Pikemen work well for holding off an enemy force; you wouldn't want to find yourself on the wrong end of this guy's weapon, let me tell you." Emmett focused his attention on the expectant statue. "Stone Pikeman, return!"

The pikeman nodded before sinking back down into the earth, its features melting away into smooth stone as it returned to the rock it had once been. All that was left behind was a bizarre little crater in the dirt road where the stone below was visible. "Sorry about the mess," Emmett said with an embarrassed grin. "In any case, neither me nor my apprentice will have any problems handling whatever it is that your miners uncovered. We'll have the problem solved and your town's livelihood restored in a matter of hours."

"Speaking of which," Brandy said, taking off at a brisk jog towards the mine. "We should hurry up." She beamed over her shoulder at her mentor. "Ancient dark presences don't eradicate themselves, you know!"

* * *

"So this is it, huh?"

The doors were tall. _Really_ tall, at least a good forty feet, made of solid, age-blackened iron with what looked to be gold inlayed into them in an elaborate swirling pattern. "Looks like it," Brandy said, folding her arms over her chest. "Didn't the miners say that they had opened it up? It's closed now."

"Hm, you're right. It's possible that the door closed of its own accord, or that something inside closed it."

 _Ah, good,_ Brandy thought. Not only was there some sort of evil presence lying in wait beyond that door, but it was an evil _door-closing_ presence. How intimidating. _Guess it hates getting a draft._ "How do you think we'll be able to get in there?" She asked. None of my Constructions can open that door..."

"And it's probably a bad idea for me to summon too many of _my_ Constructions right at the start," Emmett finishes. "After all, who knows what's lying in there. We'll need all the magical energy we can get." He glanced over at her. "Well, it is your evaluation mission, and you're the one who spends all her time around the guild's most destructive members. Surely you've got to have some ideas for how to destroy it?"

"I'm generally not the one destroying things, Master Emmett. That's usually Natsu." Brandy thought for a moment. "Or Gray. Or Erza. And Lucy _did_ summon that tidal wave."

"Hm, point taken. Alright, kiddo, stay behind me. I'm going to see if there's some way to get it open." Emmett moved towards the door. "There's got to be a lever or a button or _some_ sort of mechanism we can trigger. There's no way that whoever made this door was strong enough to open it on their own."

"Unless they were a bunch of giants," Brandy supplied. "Or wizards with strength-altering magic, like Makarov."

"Now's really not the time to be a wise-ass, kid."

"Sorry."

"It's okay. Just watch where you step and _stay behind me_. I don't want you getting hurt if something goes wrong." He began to run a scrutinous dark gaze across the doors, searching for anything that would get them inside. "I should have asked how the miners got in. Steel is heavy. Then again, I suppose they have experience with heavy metals, and there were likely more miners in here at the time then there are of us right now." Emmett tentatively reached out, and Brandy couldn't help but tense up, trepidation creeping around in the back alleys of her mind as his fingertips grew closer to the age-dulled metal. He touched the door…

...and nothing happened. Emmett's shoulders visibly relaxed; Brandy hadn't even noticed how nervous he'd been. "All right," he said. "Poking the door didn't work. And I don't see any sort of switch mechanism, so I guess I'm going to have to call forth some Constructions and hope that your magic can pick up the sla-"

 _Creeeeeaaaakkk_. The doors swung open, slowly and lethargically like an old man getting out of bed. An icy draft hit the two wizards, sending goosebumps and itches spreading across Brandy's skin in equal amounts. "Or that could happen," Emmett said. "I'm honestly not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing."

"Let's split the difference and call it creepy as hell." Brandy slid her hands underneath her cloak and brought them to rest at the bare skin of her shoulders underneath. "I'm going to call forth the twins so they can scout ahead. That way if there's a trap, we won't be stumbling into it blind."

"That's great thinking. You've become quite the strategist, Brands."

Brandy quirked an eyebrow. "Well, isn't that part of what makes a good Construction wizard? Creating a variety of different blueprints to cover a plethora of scenarios, and then being able to judge which Construction would work best for which scenario."

Emmett chuckled and clapped her on the back. "Very good. I think a lot of younger Construction wizards forget that, underneath all the other complexities that Construction involves. I know I certainly wasn't any master planner when I was your age, after all."

"It's one of the first lessons you taught me, of course I'm going to remember it." Brandy closed her eyes and focused her energy. "Magic Concealment Ink: Dispel. Construction Focus: Ink Tattoos." Her voice raises to a shout as she speaks the final words of the conjuration. " _Come forth, Twin Scouting Ravens, Huginn and Muninn!"_

She cast her hands outward, and two ravens burst from her cloak, their paths of flight intertwined as the weaved through the air, only to turn around and come back to rest on her outstretched arms. They both stared at her, silently awaiting a command. "I need you two to go inside and look for anything worthy of notice," Brandy informed the Construction. Huginn and Muninn were an oddity; it was technically one Construction, with a singular pseudo-consciousness that obeyed Brandy's will, but it manifested itself and moved about as though it was two bodies, albeit two bodies that moved so synchronously that they may as well be one and the same. Then there was the matter of what she could _do_ with it. "You're going to keep me steady, right?" she asked Emmett as the Twin Ravens flew off to perform their assigned task.

"Of course," Emmett said. "I'm not gonna let you fall."

With that assurance in mind, Brandy blessed her eyes and let her mind give way to her subconscious. Immediately an image began to form across the inside of her eyelids as she began to see through the eyes of her Construction. Huginn and Muninn were soaring through room after room, taking great care to catalog each hazard laid out in front of them.

She felt Emmett's heavy hand come down upon her shoulder. "Are you ready?" Emmett asked. While her vision was occupied, the rest of her senses were not, and she could hear his voice as clear as she would in any other circumstance.

She nodded. "Yeah."

With that answer, Emmett began to slowly guide her forward. She felt a rush of cold air that set her skin crawling as they crossed the threshold, and then they were in the darkness.

* * *

 _A/N - A few things to mention in this chapter._

 _More development for Brandy and Emmett, as well as being a total tease about their backstory. I'm aiming for them to have a father-daughter relationship, as Emmett's been Brandy's personal magical trainer since before she even joined Fairy Tail. There's a lot of history there, more of which will be revealed as the story progresses._

 _Fiore is a pretty diverse country with a lot of variance in its technology (there are some elements that are almost feudal in design, but then there are also cars and stuff?) and a lot of it is very much reliant on the magic that permeates Earthland. I wanted to explore the idea of a non-magical town in a magical setting, so that's where the concept for the town came in. The town doesn't have a name; it's just the town in the Ajisai mountains._

 _Brandy's second-revealed Construction, the Twin Scouting Ravens, Huginn and Muninn (and yes, that IS its full name) is based off of the ravens of the same name that Odin used to watch the world for him. So Drachegirl14 was correct in the assumption that Brandy's tattoos are all named after beings in Norse mythology. We'll be seeing two more before this mini-arc is up, making four out of six. Try and guess them!_

 _I'm using singular pronouns because while the Twin Scouting Ravens is split into two halves, it is technically a single Construction with a single purpose, which is why she can summon it as is. Speaking of, Emmett has six Constructions as well! His are all basic medieval military positions, like the Infantryman._

 _Chapter Eight will be out after I update Tempus Fugit, so if you follow that fic, keep an eye out for that in the near future! In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _-Diana "Nocte"_


	9. Chapter 8

_A/N - Sorry for the delay! Had some writer's block issues with Tempus Fugit, but those have been mostly hammered out, so we're going full speed ahead! Not a whole lot to say beforehand, though there will be quite a bit to say afterwards! In the meantime, thank you to Derpulies and animexxfreakxx for the reviews!_

 _Derpulies: Oh, yeah, I've been following your work since the early days! And I totally feel your pain about manga revelations necessitating rewrites, ohmigosh. That's one of the big concerns with writing a fic for a story that's not done; with my luck, some magic will come across that will render the Constructions or any of my other magic types completely moot and everything I have planned. I guess I got lucky in that regard with Soul Eater in that I started writing Tempus Fugit loooong after the anime ended. Anyways, I'm really glad you like the story, and I hope you enjoy what's to come!_

 _animexxfreakxx: Well, it wouldn't be as interesting if Brandy just sort of followed along with the canon adventures and didn't contribute to the story or have her own adventures, would it? After all, if the reviews for Tempus Fugit have told me anything, it's that people like my fics most when they're fleshing out the world in their own way. But yes, I have loads of Skin Deep-specific story planned. Triad's Foresight isn't there just for set dressing._

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Chapter Eight - Beyond the Doors**

* * *

"Watch your step."

"That's the fifth time you've told me that in the past twelve minutes. I'm fine, Master Torhearth, just please keep leading me. I need to focus."

"Right. Sorry."

Working with the Twin Scouting Ravens was always a complicated task. She wasn't seeing through her eyes, but through the eyes of both ravens, which meant she was seeing both what Huginn was seeing and what Muninn was seeing ten feet away. As if having to process images from two different angles at once wasn't disorienting enough, she could still hear and feel what was going around her body to a limited extent. It was enough to cause complete sensory overload if she wasn't carefully, and was why she was relying so much on Emmett to keep her steady.

"So where are you?" Emmett asked, his voice quiet.

"Two or three rooms ahead, I think. There's a pressure plate not too far ahead, so keep an eye out for that. It covers about half the floor, so we'll have to go along the walls."

"You've been making sure to keep an eye on the entire room, right? I don't want to trigger something on the walls."

Brandy nodded her head. At least, she thought she did; it was hard to tell, with her senses spliced like this. "I've got Muninn on floor-sweeping duty while Huginn checks the walls. I haven't seen any false bricks or anything like that. Do you see the pressure plate yet?"

"Yeah. Come on, this way." The pressure on her shoulders shifted as Emmett led her towards the wall. She reached out and felt around until she felt the cold stone underneath her fingers and used that to help guide her forward as Huginn and Muninn moved to the next room. "There's nothing in the next room, not even a cobweb. It's weird; this pressure plate is the only trap I've seen in this entire place. Why wouldn't there be- _Aaaaugh!_ "

"What? What is it?" She could hear Emmett's panicked voice in her ear, but she couldn't respond; it was all she could do to not scream in pain again.

Something was _wrong_. The energy in the room that Huginn and Muninn was in had changed, turning into a powerful tug that drew the Construct towards the ground; or, rather, where the ground _should_ have been. Brandy managed to force Muninn's head to turn to face the floor, and she saw a huge gorge split the room in two, sinking into an unfathomable blackness that the Construct was being further dragged into. No matter how hard she willed it, the Twin Scouting Ravens couldn't fly away from the pull. They, along with her, were being pulled into the darkness.

Through her pain, Brandy managed to gasp out, "Huginn and Muninn! _Return!_ " Her head swam as her vision suddenly snapped back to her body, and she staggered forward. Emmett caught her, helping her steady herself as two stream of ink came rushing in through the far door, underneath her cloak, and back into her shoulders. "Magic Concealment Ink: Activate," she panted, leaning against the wall for support. "Damn it…"

"What happened?" Emmett asked. His brows were furrowed together, and his brown eyes were dark with concern.

"There was some sort of… gorge? canyon? It was in the room after the next. There was something strange about it; it radiated this weird energy that dragged down the ravens, they couldn't fly away. I'm surprised I managed to get them back at all." She slid to the floor, drawing one of her knees up and resting her forehead against it. "I guess we figured out why there aren't more traps."

"Because they don't _need_ another trap," Emmett finished. "It might be some sort of old gravity-based magic. The wizards of old _were_ incredibly powerful; they'd have to be, to build this place." He ran a hand over his tanned face, letting out a frustrated groan before slamming his fist into the wall. " _Damn_ it. All the soldiers in the world wouldn't be able to deal with something like that. I think I would have preferred traps over this."

"Yeah," Brandy winced. "Me too. I don't think the Eagle will be able to fly us over that; it'll just get pulled in, same as the Ravens. Though, maybe…" She frowned as an idea came to mind. It wasn't the _best_ plan, but it was all she had to offer, and they needed to cross that gorge.

Emmett looked down at her. "What?"

"If we can't fly over the gorge," Brandy suggested, "maybe we could _build_ our way over. You know how resilient Frigga's webs are. I could use it to weave us a pathway across and then reinforce it with my own Solid Ink. It wouldn't hold forever, but it would give us a chance."

Emmett seemed to consider this, his expression dark with reluctance. "Not that I don't trust your magic, kiddo," he said eventually, "but if whatever magic is powering the gorge is strong enough where you almost lost the Ravens forever - which, need I remind you, would have cost you access to the rest of your Constructions as well - do you really want to risk it?"

"Do you have a better idea?" Brandy challenged.

Emmett hesitated. "No," he admitted. "All right. This mission _was_ supposed to be a test of your skills as a Construction wizard. Let's see how strong you've gotten."

The two Construction wizards maneuvered around the large pressure plate in the middle of the room and quickly progressed forward, moving into the next room. As they drew closes to the room with the gorge in it, Brandy could feel the tugging sensation again, faint but still there, slowing her movements to where every step felt like a struggle through molasses. _Whatever sort of magic this is,_ she thought, _it's old, probably as old as these ruins themselves. And powerful. I hope Frigga's webs will be able to withstand it long enough for us to cross._ Once again, she couldn't help but feel a small sting of resentment for her mother for not using her talents to provide direct assistance. _What, you'll warn me about an obviously-skeevy jerk, but not about the extremely powerful magic that could actually kill me? Real nice priorities, Mom_.

They entered the room with the gorge, and now that she could see it with her own two eyes as opposed to the eyes of Huginn and Muninn, she could see just how impressive it was. It was a remarkably clean slice through the earth, untouched by time; Brandy figured that if she somehow had the power to push the two sides of the gorge together, they would fit against each other perfectly like pieces in a puzzle. It was also endlessly dark; the sides of the gorge dropped into pitch blackness far sooner than they should have, leaving what looked like pure voice in its place. The tugging sensation was stronger than ever, and she had to dig the heels of her boots into the ground to keep herself from sliding towards the gaping maw. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Emmett gritting his teeth against the force of the gravity magic. "That's… _really_ strong, okay," he managed to gasp. "Are you sure Frigga will be able to hold up? Remember, if you lose one of your Constructions in that hole…"

"I know," Brandy said. She could only call forth one Construction at a time, and she had to return one to its original state before she could call another. If Frigga fell into the gorge, retrieving it would surely be impossible, meaning that she wouldn't be able to return it to her skin and, subsequently, wouldn't be able to call forth any of her other Constructions. She was gambling her primary magic on this one plan.

 _It better work._

Pulling her overcloak aside, she lay her hand against the bare skin of her left thigh, concentrating her magical energy. "Magic Concealment Ink: _Dispel_." An elaborate tattoo of a spider began to appear on her thigh, its spindly legs standing out against her dark skin.

Before she could actually call the Construction forth, however, Emmett held up a hand to stop her. "Wait a minute," he said. "Let me do something first." He slowly knelt down, still fighting against the pull of the gravity magic, and placed his hand against the cold, smooth stone of the ground, and a gray magic circle sprung up around his fingertips. " _Construction Focus: Stone Soldiers!_ " He called. " _Come forth, Stone Infantrymen!_ "

The room rumbled as Emmett's magic spread throughout it, and one by one, stone soldiers bearing swords and shields began to rise from the floor, four on each side of the gorge. _This_ was the full extent of Emmett's powers as the Stone General of Fairy Tail, and even after knowing him for so many years, it never failed to impress Brandy. While she (and most other Construction wizards) could only summon one blueprint at a time and only one Construction pre blueprint, Emmett was bound by no such restrictions, able to create as many copies of as many Constructions as he needed for any given situation. Most people were shocked to learn this about him; " _This guy is that powerful of a Construction wizard?_ " they would stay with jaws dropped and eyes wide. " _But he looks so ordinary!"_

And he did. But he was also a former member of Triad's Foresight, and Triad's Foresight was _very_ discriminate about the sort of wizards they allowed in their ranks.

The eight Infantrymen settled into being and dropped to one knee in unison, driving their stone swords into the ground in order to anchor themselves against the magic of the gorge. "There," Emmett panted. "Use those as anchors for the bridge."

Brandy nodded, her expression settling into a hard mask of determination as she called her magic forth once more. A black magic circle sprung to life at her thigh, and she cried out, " _Construction Focus: Ink Tattoos! Come forth, Frigga the Weaving Spider!"_

The ink burst from her skin and took shape as it hit the ground. With sharp yellow splotches lining its abdomen and a set of eight deep orange-red legs, Frigga had the appearance of your typical orb-weaver spider, if orb-weavers were the size of large dogs . It chirped and clicked its mandibles in alarm as the force of the gravity magic hit it and it began to slide across the ground towards the gorge. Brandy reached out and grabbed it, clinging to its abdomen in an attempt to keep from losing it forever. "Frigga!" she shouted. "I need you to weave a bridge over that gorge for us! Use those soldiers as an anchor!"

Frigga chittered in understanding and got to work. Shifting around as best it could to get a good vantage point without slipping out of Brandy's grip, it opened its mandibles wide and spat out a steady stream of thick, webby black ink. _Not technically biologically accurate,_ Brandy mused, _but thirteen-year-old me didn't know that when she made the blueprint._ Frigga was one of her most reliable Constructions, because what she lacked in firepower she made up in versatility. Frigga's special talent was to use a type of ink-like webbing that instantly hardened in a manner similar to Brandy's own Solid Ink to build simple structures that could either be a help to her or a hindrance to her enemies. Plus there was the intimidation factor; giant spiders were scary, even if they couldn't actually do any sort of harm.

After a few minutes (there were several instances in which the webbing fell into the gorge before being finished), the bridge was finished, a thickly-woven net of solidified ink that stretched across the gorge, tethered by webby ink-ropes secured to each of Emmett's Infantrymen. "It's holding," Brandy said, letting out a sigh.

"Maybe," Emmett muttered. "I don't like the way it's sagging near the middle."

"It'll be fine. Frigga, return." Frigga melted into ink and disappeared back into Brandy's thigh, and relief crashed into her like a tidal wave. Her magic was safe, for now. "Magic Concealment Ink: Activate." Brandy pushed forward towards the makeshift bridge, beckoning for Emmett to follow her. He did, albeit a little more reluctantly. As the two wizards reached the bridge, the pull of the Gravity magic grew stronger and stronger, until even standing became a struggle. Brandy's skin became to itch at the sensation, a familiar sense of disquiet growing at the back of her mind. "We'd better hurry across," she muttered. "Something might _happen_ if we don't get away from this magic quickly." Emmett caught onto the implications of her words and nodded, and the two of them stepped out onto the bridge.

The webbing bowed and swayed underneath their weight. Brandy wobbled back and forth, struggling to keep steady and upright as she took a few hesitant steps forward. Crossing a bridge made by Frigga was generally an easy enough task, but with the gravity magic pulling everything down, she had no idea which steps would keep her safe and which ones would tear the whole thing apart. Emmett, who was both larger and heavier than her and thus more affected by the gravity magic, had an even tougher time, each step he took being slow and measured. Every inch close to the center of the gorge led to them both feeling heavier and heavier; by the time they reached the midway point, Brandy could hardly breathe. _This has to be the point where the magic's effect is strongest,_ she thought, wheezing. _It can't possibly get any worse than this._

Despite his weight, it was Emmett who reached the other side first. Guess the height advantage he had also meant his steps were longer as well. He took the last step and practically collapsed against one of the Infantrymen, clinging to its stone form as an anchor. Brandy was almost there, as well. _Just a few more steps._ She pushed forward, ignoring the way her skin crawled underneath the weight of the spell trying to drag her down. _Just a couple more._ Her boot came down on the webbing. _Just one more…_

 _Rrrrip._

Brandy felt herself lurch as the webbing below her gave way underneath her. She had barely more than an instant to process what had happened before she began to fall, and as the reality of her predicament hit her, her heart all but stopped. She reached out as the darkness began to rise up around her and she dropped down. But it was too late, she couldn't reach the ledge in time, she was _falling_ , and who knew how long it would take before she reached the bottom, if there even was a bottom, maybe there wasn't, maybe she would be falling forever, until she starved or dehydrated or killed by something even worse lurking within the unfathomable depths-

"I got you!"

* * *

" _I got you!"_

 _Ten-year-old Brandleif flinched and drew further in on herself as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her sobbing form, pulling her against her teacher's chest. "I got you, sweetie, you're safe," Emmett whispered into her ear as he rocked her back and forth in an attempt to sooth her._

" _No, I'm not!" Brandleif cried, shaking her head furiously. "It's not gone, it's still_ here _, it's going to come back! Mister Torhearth, I'm scared."_

" _I know, Brandleif, I know," Emmett assured her. "But you're going to be okay, we're going to make sure you're okay."_

" _How do you know that?!"_

" _Brandleif." Emmett took a hold of her small shoulders and turned her to face him. His expression was soft, his lips tilted upwards into a gentle smile. "I promise you, I'm not gonna let you get hurt again, okay? And neither is your mother. We'll take care of this, I promise. I got you."_

* * *

A calloused hand wrapped around her wrist, halting her fall before it even really started. Jolted out of her state of shock, Brandy looked up with wide yellow eyes to see Emmett above her, holding onto her for dear life. The Infantryman he had been clinging to earlier was now clinging onto him, its arms wrapped tightly around his waist as he leaned into the abyss. _He's using his soldier to keep himself from falling after me?_

"Now!" Emmett shouted, and the Infantry got to its feet and began to back up, pulling Emmett and by extension Brandy out and away from the gorge. Feeling her feet touch the ground again felt like the life had returned to her body. Her knees grew weak, and Brandy wobbled as Emmett let go of her hand and pried himself from the arms of the Infantryman anchoring him. "Thank you," he told the soldier. "Stone Infantrymen: Return." As his Constructions melted back into the ground, he turned back to face her. "That was a close one. Are you oka- _ooof!"_

He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before Brandy barreled into him, throwing her arms around his chest with a strangled sob. Her hands her shaking wildly; scratch that, her entire body was shaking. It was a wonder that she can't collapsed completely. "Whoa, hey there," Emmett said softly, stroking her dark hair. "It's okay, kiddo, I'm here, I got you. I told you, I'm not going to leave you to fend for yourself."

"Yeah." Brandy's words were muffled by the cotton of Emmett's shirt. "Yeah, I guess you did say that." She pulled away, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "Sorry, I just… I guess I sort of got a bit freaked out there."

"I'd be more concerned if you weren't a little freaked out, after what just happened," Emmett quipped. He looked at the gorge. "I guess the magic was directed further out towards the entrance. The magic isn't as strong on this side." He was right; the tugging sensation was still there, but it was greatly diminished. "Still, I hope that there's a back door someone around here. I don't care how secure Frigga's webs are, we're _not_ doing that again."

"I won't fight you on that," Brandy muttered, scratching at her arm underneath her cloak. "I feel like my skin's going to start falling off if we don't get out of this room and onto the next one."

Emmett nodded before turning to face the gaping maw of a doorway that lay ahead of them. "You weren't able to see into the next room with the Ravens before the gravity magic started kicking it, were you?" he said.

Brandy shook her head. "Nope. After this, we're going in blind."

"Well, I guess it's better than sticking around here," Emmett sighed. "Come on." He began to stride towards the door, and after a brief moment to steel herself and stop the shaking of her hands, Brandy followed suit.

* * *

"Well. This is… something different."

There had been a couple more rooms past the gorge, and all of them had been consistently empty. Brandy was starting to wonder who would make a building this grand and not even _put_ things in it. Sure, the Triad's Foresight guild hall was needlessly opulent, but at least there was, you know, _actual furniture_ in that. This was just… emptiness.

At least, except for the final room. Unlike the past rooms, which had all been relatively rectangular and similarly-sized, this one was a round, completely massive amphitheater, with benches filling the room and circling a single tall pedestal raised in the center. From up above, a beam of light shone down upon the pedestal from a strange, luminescent crystal, lighting the room with an eerie glow. A strange, cold aura filled the room, not unlike the sensation they experienced first entering the ruins. "What do you think this was used for?"

"Dunno," Emmett muttered. "Maybe someone wanted to show off? Keep on your guard; I don't like the feel of this room."

"Right." Brandy drew some ink forth from one of her pouches and shaped it into her Solid Ink halberd, holding it close to her body as they moved forward. "I don't see anything in here. Maybe it's empt-"

An indistinct form shot past the two wizards, so fast it was little more than a blur. "Crap!" Brandy yelped, brandishing the halberd in the direction the blur had gone. "What was that?!"

The form rushed by again, so close that Brandy felt her hair ruffle against her chin. It sped to the pedestal before stopping underneath the makeshift spotlight caused by the crystal, and she managed to get a look at it. It was a strange tapir-like creature about the size of a large cat that floated in the air, with clawed, tiger-like paws and a short tail with long, flowing fur. Its face was twisted into a bizarre mockery of a grin, and each breath it took resulted in a puff of strange white gas billowing from its long snout. "It's a Baku," Emmett muttered. "Don't breath that gas; if you do, it'll be able to invade your mind."

And given Brandy's circumstances, that was the last thing she wanted to happen.

The Baku giggled and danced through the air, spinning in circles around the pedestal before turning its attention back on them and charging through the air again. Brandy managed to raise her halberd in time, blocking it and sending it spinning away. Shaking its head as if to say "ouch, that really hurt!" it pouted at her and charged again, this time aiming for Emmett. Covering his mouth and nose with one hand, he ducked down just as the Baku soared past him, slamming his other hand into the floor. " _Construction Focus: Stone Soldiers! Come forth, Stone Archer!_ " A stone soldier armed with a bow and quiver full of arrows sprung from the ground and immediately took aim at the Baku, letting the arrow split the air as if it were made of wood and feathers and not pure stone. The Baku dodged it and slipped into the darkness beyond the light of the crystal with a manic giggle. "Damn it!" Emmett muttered.

"I'll call the Ravens back!" Brandy declared, banishing her halberd back to her pouches and reaching for her shoulders. "They'll be able to spot it and drive it out."

"No!" Emmett said. "I don't want your attention split right now. If you're focused on looking through the Ravens, you won't be able to avoid its breath if it sneaks up on you."

Brandy hesitated. "Yeah," she said, with a reluctant nod of her head. "You're right. We'll have to draw it out the old-fashioned way, then."

As it turned out, they didn't need to draw it out at all. A faint giggle from behind her caught Brandy's attention, and she turned around to see the Baku shoot up from the ground, grazing her face as it passed by her and leaving behind another white cloud as it did. Brandy couldn't help but let out a gasp of surprise as it shot past, and ended up inhaling a deep breath of the gas. It tasted off, like a cloud of chalk dust that cloud to her throat and caused her to double over in a coughing fit.

"Wait!" Emmett's voice was laced with panic. "Brandleif, don't-"

Whatever he was about to say, it was too late. Agony split through Brandy's head like a lance, driving her to her knees with an anguished scream. A few flashes filled her mind, nondescript images against white-hot pain, and amongst it all was a faint giggling as her thoughts grew blurrier and blurrier. She couldn't even feel the ground beneath her anymore.

Before her mind could be completely overwhelmed however, there was another sensation, an all-too-familiar voice piping up from the darkest recesses of her subconscious. A single word was spoken.

 _No._

* * *

 _A/N - And here we meet the third out of Brandy's tattoos, Frigga the Weaving Spider. Out of all six of her tattoos, Frigga is the only one where the link between name and form aren't immediately obvious. I wanted to keep a Norse theme, but I also wanted to have a spider, and there aren't a whole lot of spiders in Norse mythology. I stumbled across a painting by John Charles Dollman entitled "Frigga Spinning the Clouds," and the association with spinning/weaving and spiders was enough for me._

 _Flashbacks are going to be a pretty significant part of this story, as a lot of Brandy's character development comes from her relationship with her mom, her dynamic with Emmett, and whatever it was that happened that got her sent to Fairy Tail in the first place. The one we got in this chapter was just a glimpse of what was to come. And yeah, Emmett is basically Team Dad of this story. Like I mentioned before, not a dynamic I get to write a lot, so I'm excited._

 _Would you believe I most all of this arc figured out before I decided what sort of creature was in the ruin to begin with and why? Yeah. Me, master of outlines, not properly outlining a subplot. Of course, this subplot came about on shorter notice than the rest of the story, so it stands to reason a little bit. The Baku in this is actually a little bit different from a mythological baku, which will become more apparent in the next chapter. So, after the arc is over, do a bit of googling if you want to see where the similarities begin and end. (Also, in case the Baku sounds like a Musharna from Pokemon, that's because Musharnas were also based off of the baku from Japanese mythology. The more you know~)_

 _This arc is gonna be a bit longer than I originally planned, but should still end next chapter if all goes well. Either way, Chapter Nine will be out shortly; in the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _-Diana "Nocte"_


	10. Chapter 9

_A/N - So, uh, how about that latest chapter of the manga, huh? Pretty exciting, hahahaha MashimaifyoukilloneofmydarlingsIwillfindyou. v_

 _And here's the last chapter of the Ajisai mini-arc! I'm honestly a little glad for that; this little mini-arc hasn't been the greatest thing I've ever written, if I'm being perfectly honest. I probably should have done more planning than I actually did? And I usually do; you know how I am, foreshadowing abound. But I planned out the trip to Ajisai before actually figuring out what was in the mine, and I planned the ruins before figuring out what I was going to put in them, so there was a lot of winging-it that I'm not gonna look back on happily in a few months._

 _But we can talk more about that in the end-of-chapter notes. Nobody reviewed this chapter, so no reviews to respond to, so I guess we'll just get straight to the chapter!_

 _DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail is the intellectual property of Hiro Mashima. I have no intention of monetizing my fanwork, and this is merely an enjoyable passer of time._

* * *

 **Chapter Nine - Emotions**

* * *

"Brandy!"

 _Master Torhearth?_

Brandy's mind was a jumbled mess. Images flashed in her head, ideas of the Baku's frowning face and a shedded snakeskin deteriorating in a rainstorm, the sensation of soft silken robes against her body as smooth hands with long, tapered fingers held her close to an unfamiliar chest. She felt confusion and anger, but most of all what she felt was _fear_.

And it wasn't hers.

"Brandy, listen to me!" Emmett's hands were wrapped tightly over her shoulders, his voice muffled by the war erupting inside her head. "You need to snap out of it, okay? Whatever thoughts you're thinking, they're not your own, your mind is being taken over by the Baku!"

No… no, she still had control over her own mind, as tenuous as it was. "M-master Torhearth," she managed to cough out. "I'm not… I'm still…"

"Brandy!" The surprise in his voice was palpable. "You're fighting it's influence?"

"Not _me_ ," Brandy gasped, as pointedly as she could manage.

The realization struck Emmett, and she could feel his hands on her shoulders tense slightly through the thick fabric of her overcoat. "Oh," he said. "That figures. How are you feeling? Do you think you can drive it out completely?"

"I… I don't know… Master Torhearth, it's not angry, the Baku is _scared_ , it's scared of us." The images were clearer now, images of her and Emmett with their visages twisted to look like monsters. Brandy could feel the Baku trying to poke its nose into the rest of her mind, only to rear back as if slapped with another _NO!_ More images of snakeskin flashed through her thoughts, followed by an image of the Baku, with its head tilted inquisitively to the side as it regarded something unfathomable. "I think I'm confusing it."

Emmett managed to crack a weak smile at that. "Well, your condition can be pretty confusing, when you first find out about it," he said, before his expression fell back into a concerned frown. "I don't understand. Why is it scared of us? I mean, I can understand if being scared of, well… you know… but _it_ attacked _us_ first. And don't even get me started on the gravity magic!"

A tidal wave of indignation sent Brandy reeling, doubling over and grabbing at her head as new images find her consciousness. The Baku leaving its amphitheater; the Baku trying to float over the gorge, single-mindedly focused on the doorway on the other side; the Baku being dragged down by the gravity magic, barely able to escape the darkness of the ravine's depths; the Baku fleeing back into the amphitheater with a despairing look on its face. "It didn't make the gorge," Brandy whispered as the pieces began to fall into place. Opening her eyes, she looked up sharply, wincing as her vision spun and doubled. "The gravity magic weren't meant to keep us out; it was meant to keep the Baku in! That's why it was stronger on one side than the other; even if the Baku did manage to surpass the gorge, the gravity magic would just pull it back!"

Emmett blinked. "But… why?"

More images. A cluster of people in beautiful, ornate red robes, all gathered around the delighted Baku. "There were… people. They…" Reverent face dances across her vision, with wide smiles and eyes full of awe and wonder as the Baku performed simple tricks in the air. "They loved the Baku. They _worshipped it._ "

"A cult, then?" It wasn't uncommon to hear of small groups of fanatics coalesce around the worship of one magical creature or another.

"I… I don't know. Maybe? It's hard to tell. Everything's through the Baku's eyes. I really don't think it had an… unbiased view of things." There was a sharp spike in irritation lashing out from where the Baku still lurked at the corner of her thoughts, and it prodded at her consciousness again in irritation before promptly getting pushed back by the anger in her head. "It didn't like me saying that."

"I can imagine." Now that control of the situation had been somewhat reclaimed, Emmett had started to relax a bit, his shoulders no longer tense with anticipation. "So… what was it doing all the way down here? And how long has it been down here?"

If you had told Brandy the day before that she would end up being the middle-man for a conversation between her mentor and a Baku, she would have called you a number of colorful epithets, most of which implying unflattering things about your intelligence level and current state of sobriety. But here she was, translating the residual emotions and memories of a magical creature that had tried to take over her mind and would have succeeded were it not for the fragmented mess that was her subconscious. She didn't think that her mom would have even been able to predict _this_ turn of events.

(Though if she _had_ , a little heads up would have been nice.)

Brandy tentatively reached her thoughts out towards the Baku, allowing the thoughts she was sensing to become clearer and more understandable. Her skin crawled at little at what that spark of primal anger in the back of her mind no doubt perceived as an intrusion, but she ignored it and pushed forward. "This was some sort of temple. They built it because the Baku wanted it. And the amphitheater right there was so the Baku could perform tricks for people who came to visit. It… it really liked showing off. They were happy, the Baku was happy, until…"

The images flashing in her head painted a clear story; the robed figure's joyous expressions slowly grew fearful and then disgusted as the Baku fed from the dreams and thoughts of those it lured into the amphitheater. The images were shown with an undercurrent of indignation. "The people who worshipped the Baku stopped when it got hungry and started to feed on people. It doesn't think it was doing anything wrong; it ate when it was hungry, just like every other creature." The images continued, flashing in front of her eyes erratically, as if the mere memory of what happened was enough to send to Baku into a near frenzy. She did her best to translate what she could see. " _They_ were the ones who set up the traps; the pressure plate to keep out people coming in, and the ravine to keep the Baku from trying. They sealed the place away and buried it. The Baku isn't sure how long it's been here." An image of a calendar, followed by a spike of inquisitiveness. "What? O-oh. It's the year ex-seven-eighty-four."

Panic spiked through Brandy's, causing her to double over and clutch her head. "Damn it!" she shouted. "Augh, it didn't like _that_ news. It's been in here for over three hundred and forty years."

"It went that long without eating?" Emmett asked. "I wasn't even aware Baku had such a prolonged lifespan. Then again, it's not like a whole lot is known about them. Most scholars in the field of magical fauna study don't generally get close enough to properly study them, for good reason." He rubbed his hand across the stubble at his chin thoughtfully. "So… wait. If this place was repurposed to be a prison for it, why did the doors at the front open?"

Images of the the door opening and closing. The Baku, floating proudly near the entrance, cheerfully welcoming new worshippers. "The Baku can control the doors. It can't reach them due to the gravity magic in the ravine, but it can still open them. It opened them in the hopes that a powerful wizard who would be able to undo the gravity magic and let it go free."

"And it ended up getting exactly what it wanted," Emmett muttered. "So now we know why it's in here, and what it wants. Which only leaves one more question…" His dark brown eyes glinted dangerously. "Why should we let it go free?"

There was a moment of silence. Brandy's head was strangely quiet, leaving only the lingering wariness lurking deep within her subconscious. Then…

 _Rage._ Unstoppable rage that pushed past even the anger that kept Brandy's mind her own, overwhelming her thoughts until she was no longer sure where she began and the .Baku began. "Gyaaahh!" she screamed, her vision going almost completely dark as her sense of control fragmented and her senses stopped being her own. She could barely feel Emmett's hands back on her shoulders, could barely hear his cry of "Brandy? Brandy, what happened?!"

The anger only intensified at hearing its voice. "You _need_ to let it go, Master Torhearth!" she shouted. "It's been here for over three centuries, it needs to be _set free!_ " Brandy was used to words that weren't hers leaving her mouth, but she wasn't used to it feeling like this; she knew she wasn't angry at Emmett, but at the same time, anger was all she could feel.

"What? No, no, Brandy, _listen to me_ ," Emmett urged. "These thoughts aren't yours. That's the Baku talking. You need to snap out of it, you need to get it out of your head so we can get out of here and find a way to seal this place off for good."

"No!" Brandy - or maybe the Baku - she didn't know anymore - shouted. "It didn't do anything wrong, it just needed! Everything has to eat, human, that's how things work!" _Definitely_ the Baku, now. "It's so tired of being trapped in here, can't you just set it free?"

"Listen to me!" Emmett said sharply. Brandy flinched; anger was such a rare emotion from her teacher. "Look at what you're doing! You're taking over my mentor's mind, causing her _pain!_ "

 _Oh,_ Brandy realized. _He's not talking to me anymore. He's talking to that Baku._

Emmett continued. "You don't just eat, you eat thoughts! Our unique thoughts are what make us who we are, so when you eat our thoughts you're basically eating us! Can't you understand, your worshippers were scared for a good reason! Aren't you scared of _your_ predators?"

Brandy recoiled a little in shame. "It can't help what it has to eat."

"And humans can't help but be afraid of you," Emmett pointed out.

Stymied by his words, the Baku retreated from Brandy's mind a little. She quickly wrenched back whatever control she could, gasping as she feels her senses return to her… and immediately wincing as she realizes that part of being able to fully sense things again is feeling the way her skin _burns,_ the itching sensation spreading across her back and arms like an army of insects crawling across her skin. "Ohhhkay, that's unpleasant," she grumbles, pulling her overcoat closer around herself.

"Brandy?" Emmett leans forward. "That you?"

Brandy nodded. "Yeah. What you said confused it, I think. It's not gone completely, but it's backed off a bit. I think that it's thinking."

"That's a start, at least." Emmett hesitated. "How are you… holding up?"

Picking up on the subtext within his question. Brandy shrugged. "My skin feels like it's peeling and I'm still a bit dizzy, but I'll recover. It felt… well, it felt _different_ , you know? It wasn't like my body was being taken over, more like my thoughts and the Baku's thoughts started to blur together. For a while I couldn't figure out who was talking, if it even mattered." She shot him what she _hoped_ was a comforting grin. "Don't worry, though, Master Torhearth, I'll be fine. There aren't going to be any incidents."

She hadn't noticed just how _tense_ her mentor was until he let out a sigh of relief and practically deflated. "So," he said. "Do you have any idea what the Baku's thinking about?"

"No. It's mostly out of my mind now, and it's not like I can go inside _its_ mind. The only parts of it I can feel are the parts that are still in my hea- _oh!_ " Brandy was cut off by the Baku hesitantly poking back into her primary consciousness, dropping a single thought into the forefront of her mind. "It has a question for you, Master Torhearth!"

"What? What is it?"

"It asked… 'what if I only ate nightmares?'"

Emmett blinked in surprise. "Nightmares?"

Brandy nodded as more thoughts began to trickle in through her connection to the creature. "It knows that humans hate nightmares. They don't taste good to it, but it can eat them, and they sustain it as much as any other thought. If it ate nightmares, people wouldn't have to deal with bad dreams anymore, and it could feed without scaring anyone. That way it could go free." Brandy ran a hand through her hair. "I mean, it _sounds_ reasonable, right? I know I wouldn't complain if there wa a floating tapir-monster going around and eating my bad dreams before I even had them."

Emmett seemed a little more reluctant. "I suppose. But how can we trust it not to go after good dreams, or waking thoughts?"

An answer formed. "It wants to be free," Brandy translated. "It knows that if it starts eating good dreams and other thoughts, the wizards will come back and trap it again. And it doesn't want to be trapped anymore. So it'll keep its promise."

"Well, it's right about that part, at least." Emmett was quiet for a bit, a thoughtful expression on his face. "All right," he eventually said. "I suppose it would be cruel of us to just leave it here. And we'd probably have had to get rid of the gravity spell anyway, if we wanted to get out of here. But it has to leave your mind completely before we do anything."

Brandy's mind was _immediately_ cleared of any of the Baku's thoughts as it practically fled from her mind. After a couple seconds, the Baku itself appeared from the darkness blanketing most of the amphitheater, looping around the two Construction wizards with a hopeful expression on its face. Emmett shot a look towards Brandy as he stood up, an unspoken question lingering in his gaze. She got to her own feet, brushing the dirt off of her overcloak and nodding her answer. Emmett turned to the Baku. "All right, then. How do we free you?"

The Baku chirped happily and flew up towards the crystal floating high above the center pedestal of the amphitheater, giving it a wide berth as it spun around it. "That crystal is controlling the gravity spell?" Emmett asked.

The Baku nodded.

"So then we have to destroy it." Emmett turned to his Stone Archer, who had been standing there patiently the entire time, waiting for instructions. "Shoot the arrow," he commanded.

The Archer nodded and drew another arrow, nocking it and taking aim towards the crystal. It fired, and Emmet and Brandy watched with bated breath as the arrow soared through the air…

...and bounced off the crystal's surface, not even chipping it. "Well," Emmett said. "That might pose a problem."

"No, it won't," Brandy replied.

"The Archer's the only thing that can reach that, Brandy."

"No it isn't." She pulled off her overcloak and let it drop to the floor, placing her hand against her stomach. "If I can get up there, I can shatter it. I just need a little help."

"Wha-" Emmett's eyes widened slightly as he realized what she meant. "Are you sure? The Baku invading you mind had to have taken a lot out of you, and you've already summoned two Constructions today."

"You've summoned three. Ten, if you count each Infantryman as a separate summon."

"Yes, but-"

"You brought us to Ajisai in the first place so that you could assess my skills as a Construction wizard, didn't you?" Brandy pointed out, affixing a pointed yellow stare to her mentor. "I've got this covered. Trust me." A black magic circle sprung to life against her fingertips. Magic Concealment Ink: _Dispel!_ " The tattoo that appeared on her abdomen was especially elaborate, in the shape of an eagle with its wings spread and a sword held tightly in its claws. " _Construction Focus: Ink Tattoos! Come forth, Valkyrian Eagle with Sword!"_

Her powerhouse Construction came bursting from her stomach, expanding and taking form as it landed in front of her. The Valkyrian eagle was _huge_ , easily a good eleven or twelve feet from its beak to the base of its tail. Its feathers were a brilliant gold in color, shining like liquid metal underneath the gleam of the crystal's light, and its eyes were two pools of pitch blackness, matched only by the darkness of its talons. Clutched in one of its feet was an ornate longsword, comparable to one of Erza's many, many swords. The Eagle dropped the sword on the ground in front of Brandy and waiting, its head tilted so it could focus one large, inky eye on her.

"You know, I still think you went a little overboard with the Eagle's design," Emmett remarked.

"I was _fourteen_ , what do you expect?" Brandy grabbed the sword from off the ground and began to approach the Eagle. "Besides, I still think it looks pretty cool. And there's something to be said about the merits of having a giant bird you can ride around on, you know. For instance…" She threaded her fingers through the thick feathers of the Eagle's neck and hauled herself onto its back, sword still in hand. "I'll be able to fly up there and break that stupid rock that's keeping us trapped here." She looked down at her Construction. "Let's go, Eagle!"

The Valkyrian Eagle let out a mighty screech, a declaration of intent to all those who heard it, and spread its wings, flying up towards the crystal and taking its creator with it. For a moment, Brandy was grateful that the Baku's love of showing off necessitated the amphitheater to be as large as it was; if it were much smaller, she didn't think it would be able to house the Eagle's impressive wingspan. But she couldn't worry about that right now; they were drawing close to the crystal, and she'd have to act soon. Struggling to keep her balance, Brandy carefully stood up atop the Eagle's back, gripping the sword tightly and readying herself to strike. "Three hundred and forty years, huh?" she muttered. "That's a pretty strong spell to last that long. Let's see how it lasts under the might of a Fairy Tail wizard!"

With a cry of her own, she swung the sword in a wide arc, striking the crystal with everything she could throw at it. The crystal shattered underneath the blade of her sword, shards of what surely had to be lacrima flying through the air and dropping to the ground. A few sharps sliced through Brandy's skin as they passed, and she let out a hiss as the resulting cuts tingled with a strange energy. _Yup, definitely some sort of lacrima._

With the crystal shattered, the air around her shifted and changed. That cold, heavy feeling that had permeated most of the ruined temple was gone, and breathing helt a little easier. No doubt if she were to go back into the room with the ravine, she would find the gravity magic gone. As the Eagle soared back down to the ground, the Baku came up to greet them, bouncing through the air with renewed spirit. It rapidly danced in circles around Brandy, giggling madly before lightly butting her on the back with its forehead. "Was that some sort of 'thank you?'" Brandy teased. The Baku nodded. "Oh, well then, you're very welcome. You know, you're actually kind of adorable when you're not trying to take over my mind." She turned the attention to the Eagle. "Valkyrian Eagle, return!"

With a final squawk, the Eagle melted back into the ink, the sword in Brandy's hand quickly followed suit. The ink returned to the light brown skin of her abdomen, and Brandy dropped down to the ground below, landing with practiced ease. "So," she said, silently reactivating the magical concealment on the tattoo as she addressed Emmett, "what's the grade for _that_ one, Master Torhearth?"

Emmett pretended to mull it over. "Well, let's see… You summoned three Constructions in one day without any signs of magical overexertion, you've shown remarkable control over all of them, Frigga's webs are now strong enough to withstand intense gravity magic for several minutes, you managed to withstand an assault on your mind by a powerful magical creature, and destroyed an enchantment strong enough to last for over three centuries…" He grinned proudly at her. "As your teacher I'd say you've more than passed your assessment, kiddo."

Brandy beamed and pumped her fist high in the air. "Haha, _yeah_ I have! Man, I can't wait to tell the guys back at the guild about this! How many ancient spells has _Natsu_ broken, huh?" She was getting a little more excited than usual, but being good at her magic was important to her, and getting the approval from a Construction wizard as powerful as the Stone General of Fairy Tail only solidified how hard she had worked to become the wizard she was now.

 _See, Mom?_ she thought. _Just because I didn't carry on the family tradition doesn't make me a poorer wizard_.

Her jubilation was interrupted by the Baku impatiently floating between of them, soaring back and forth between the open door of the amphitheater and the two wizards pointedly. "I think it wants to leave," Emmett said with a wry smirk. "We should let the townsfolk know that there's no more danger. Though they probably should come exploring; there's still the pressure plate in that one room, and even without the gravity magic the gorge is pretty deep. Wouldn't want a miner falling in by accident."

Brandy nodded. "Okay, then," she said, picking her cloak up off the floor and pulling it over her shoulders as she followed Emmett and the Baku out the door. "Let's go finish this mission, shall we?"

* * *

"You seriously fought off _twenty Vulcan_?"

"Nineteen, actually." Macao Conbolt corrected. Despite his words, he bore a proud, cheeky grin on his tan features as he took another swig from his tankard of mead. "The twentieth one finally got me. Good thing Natsu and the new girl came to get me; I don't know how long I would have been out there, otherwise."

"Jeez," Emmett sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Suddenly I feel like I accomplished a lot less today."

After he and Brandleif had returned to Magnolia, Brandleif had left to go find her friends, no doubt to tell them about what had transpired during their mission. The Baku had disappeared into the mountains as soon as they left the mines. Emmett hoped that it kept up its promise; he didn't want to have to put the thing down if it came to that. "So, Emmett said, "how's Romeo holding up? He was pretty shaken up when you didn't come back."

"Yeah, I heard." Macao's gaze turned downwards towards his tankard, his expression growing somber. "He said that the kids who were teasing him have stopped after he told them about how I fought the Vulcans. That's another reason I'm glad Natsu came to find me. I don't want to think about what would have happened if Romeo had been left all alone like that. After Enno left..."

Emmett exchanged a glance with Wakaba Mine. Macao didn't talk about his ex-wife much. "We would have looked after Romeo, Macao," Emmett said. "The Guild would've given him a place to stay."

"Yeah," Wakaba agreed. "Heck, this is probably one of the most kid-friendly guilds I ever seen. Remember when Natsu and all of his friends were little? Boy, were they ever little trouble-makers. Always setting things on fire or freezing things."

"You say 'were' like they _stopped_ ," Emmett pointed out.

"Heh, ain't that the truth." Wakaba leaned back in his chair and craned his neck towards Mirajane, who was tidying up the shelves of tankards and glasses. "'Ey, Mira! Wanna bring us some more ale over here?"

"Be right there, Wakaba!" Mirajane bustled over, bringing a couple more tankards with her. "How are you feeling, Macao?" she asked as she placed out the new drinks and collected the empty tankards.

Macao rubbed his shoulder. "Still a little sore, but I'll be fine. So, did anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

"Well, there was the new recruit, Lucy," Mirajane said. "But you've already met her. Oh, and there was a bit of a guild fight right before Natsu went to go find you."

"Aw, man, I missed a guild fight? Everything fun always happens when I'm on a mission."

Wakaba spoke up. "Hey, Mira," he said with a suggestive grin, "speakin' of fun, why don't you and me catch a play and get some drinks sometime?"

"That does sound like fun, Wakaba," Mirajane said, and Emmett caught a hint of a devilish smile playing at the corner of the young woman's lips before she used her Transformation magic to shapeshift herself into the spitting image of Wakaba's wife, "but wouldn't you rather go do something like that with Millgana?"

"Gyah!" Taken off-guard, Wakaba flailed backwards, causing his chair to tip over and send the smoke wizard crashing to the ground.

"You pretty much asked for that one, Wakaba," Emmett said as Mirajane transformed back into her normal self and headed back to the counter with a wicked smile on her face.

"Shut up…" Wakaba groaned from the floor.

"Hey, that reminds me," Macao said, turning to Emmett. "Are you ever gonna find anyone to settle down with? I mean, it didn't work out for me, but you've always struck me like the type of guy who would appreciate the whole wife-and-kids thing."

Emmett frowned at the question. "Haven't had the time," he answered vaguely. "Being a wizard is a full-time job, especially with Brandy's training to consider."

"Ah, come off it," Wakaba scoffed as he pulled himself to his feet. "Brandy's a grown woman now. She ain't hiding in your cloak anymore, she can take care of herself. You wanna know what I think?"

"No, but I suspect you'll tell me anyway." Emmett took a sip of his ale...

"I think you're still holding a torch for you-know-who."

…and promptly spat it back out. "W- _what_?" Emmett coughed, staring incredulously at his friend.

"Seriously?" Wakaba said. "You haven't even _looked_ at a woman since you and the kid got here, and it ain't like there's a shortage of beautiful women here in Magnolia, you know."

"That doesn't mean- look, that was a long time ago and I've gotten over it, okay?" A bald-faced lie, and everyone there knew it. "I've just been _busy_. I have rent to pay and people to help and of course there's Brandy's condition to worry about. Just because she's older now doesn't mean I'm going to abandon her to deal with her problems, especially when her problems were _my_ fault to begin with."

Macao grinned. "See," he said. "This is what I'm talking about. Take it from me, Emmett, you'd make a good dad."

Emmett stared down at his tankard for a long time before he spoke again. "Look, I don't even know how we got onto this topic, my family life is _not_ important. This is just supposed to be three men drinking and enjoying each other's company, right? So let's just sit here, drink our ale, and celebrate the fact that no one got eaten by monsters."

Wakaba chuckled and raised his tankard. "All right," he said. "I'll drink to that!"

* * *

 _A/N - Call me crazy, by I think Emmett harbors a little bit of bitterness over this particular topic. Weird._

 _In retrospect, I wish I hadn't ended the last chapter where I did. The pacing gets a little weird with the chapter break where it is. I had been worried that this chapter would have been too short in comparison if I had placed the break later, but then it turned out to be over 4.5K words in length without the author's notes. So much for that, I guess. Still, all's well that ends well._

 _But yeah, next arc is gonna be a lot more thought-out than this. We'll also be getting an in-depth look into how Construction works in about two chapters. Speaking of which, we get to see the fourth of Brandy's six Constructions, the Valkyrian Eagle with Sword! To be honest, I really just wanted to give her a giant bird to fly around on because I thought it would be cool, and the sword came from back when her tattoos were visible. So yeah, Rule of Cool dictated this tattoo in its entirety. (And apparently it dictated its appearance in-story, too.)_

 _Overall, I don't feel like this overall arc was very… impactful? Like, it further established the dynamic between Brandy and Emmett, which is gonna be super-duper important as the story progresses, so I guess there was a net benefit. And we will be coming back to Ajisai and its residents again. I have plans for them. So yeah, admittedly weak arc, but it sets up for the future, and everyone knows that Chekov's Guns are my favorite thing, so. And the Everlue + Eisenwald arc will be a lot more cohesive, I promise. (And fun to write; oh, there will be a couple scenes from Episode Three that I will very much enjoy writing, heh heh heh._

 _The Baku being not as malicious as originally thought came from an idea my sister-slash-beta-reader had. She suggested that the inhabitant simply be a prisoner, hated by circumstances it couldn't control and a nature it was born with. My sister is awesome, and the reasons why will be apparent much, much, much later._

 _Chapter Ten will be posted soon! In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_

 _-Diana "Nocte"_


	11. Chapter 10

_A/N - So, uh, been a while. Yayyy real life?_

 _Not much to say before the chapter starts, beyond the fact that I finally figured out whose voice keeps coming out of Emmett's mouth when I write these scenes, and it's Travis Willingham's. Haven't quite figured out Brandy's yet, but yeah, when you read Emmett's dialogue, that's who you should be thinking of._

 _Anyways, I'd like to thank Derpulies, Lightsbane1905, and mysterygirl123 for reviewing!_

 _Derpulies: Awww, thanks! I'm glad to hear people like Emmett; like I've said before, he's an archetype I've never written before, and his storyline and backstory are actually pretty important to Brandy's own backstory, especially involving The Incident. I also just really like writing him a lot._

 _And when I was referring to the arc as being non-impactful, I guess I was just referring to it in comparison to Tempus Fugit, my Soul Eater fanfic? Because with TF, Soul Eater is already done, so I can afford to do my usual extensive "plot out EVERYTHING and its relevance to EVERYTHING ELSE" that I do with my outlines. But because Fairy Tail is still going and sometimes throws some curveballs (like FUCKING CHAPTER 499) I have to be a little looser and more flexible with how I plan out my story, which is pretty new to me. So instead of following my outlines, sometimes I'm freewriting stuff that won't have relevance until I retroactively decide its relevance, which is kind of new and scary for me? Luckily I'm decent-ish at writing my way out of corners and I've got my sister/beta to help me out with plot stuff, so hopefully I'll be able to keep the story from falling apart without a rigid outline with which I can keep track of what happens when._

 _(And yeah, not looking forward to writing THAT part of the arc when Skin Deep reaches it, that's for sure. Well, actually, I kind of am, if only for some really good character developments I have planned.)_

 _Lightsbane1905: Well, given that it was assaulting the mind of his student, I think Emmett was slightly justified in seeing the Baku as a threat that needed to be dealt with. But yeah, people's intentions not always being as malevolent as initially assumed is a recurring theme in Fairy Tail, so I figured I might as well continue it a bit with the Baku. And circumstance affecting our interaction with the world and its people is going to be a bit of a thing with the rest of my story, so, you know. Parallels._

 _mysterygirl123: Thanks! We won't be seeing the fifth Construction for a while, though. Waffled on showing it next chapter and during the Lullaby arc, and eventually decided on the Lullaby arc. That's only a few chapters, though! As for the sixth one, well, that's it's own thing. We will be getting a detailed rundown on just how Construction works next chapter._

* * *

 **Chapter Ten - Pacts and Promises**

* * *

Whether or not a person enjoyed having a window on the eastern side of their bedroom depending entirely on whether or not they liked being woken up at eight-thirty in the morning by the sun shining directly on your face. For Brandy, it had its ups and downs. On the one hand, the morning light was a gentle, warm comfort against her perpetually itchy skin, something she could bath in for hours, or at least until it warmed up enough where spending the day underneath the sheets became impractical and unpleasant.

 _On the other hand,_ she thought, wincing as she threw her arm over her eyes, _it's really damn bright._ She rolled over and covered her head with the pillow. _And I am really tired_. It had been a couple days since she had gone on the mission with Emmett. The money they'd gotten from their mission had been more than enough to cover the 100,000-jewels rent that she and Emmett had to pay to stay in the two-story house they lived in, and Brandy had been taking advantage of the fact that she didn't have to worry about taking any more jobs for a few days by getting as much rest as she could. Going straight from a Natsu Mission to an evaluation mission had started to take a toll on her. So she was just going to lay here in bed, curled up under the light fabric of the sheets, and spend as much of the morning she could sleepin-

 _CRASH._

"Oh, for the love of…!"

Brandy didn't need to go downstairs to investigate what had caused the sudden crashing sound that had shaken the entire house, partially because she already had a pretty good idea of who it was and partially because of the set of slightly frantic footsteps ascending up the stairs to stop right outside her bedroom, followed by a careful knock at her door. "Brandy?" Emmett asked from the other side of the door. "Are you awake?"

Brandy sighed. "It'd be sort of hard not to be!" she responded, pushing the pillow off her head and pulling herself into a sitting position. "Let me guess: Natsu and Happy are here." She rubbed at her yellow eyes, still heavy with lingering tiredness.

"Yeah. They said something about a really good mission they want your help with. Also, they're sort of eating everything in our pantry."

Brandy bit her tongue to stop herself from unleashing a string of swear words that would make even her mother blush. "Yeah, okay, I'll be down in a minute. Just lemme get dressed real quick, okay?" She dragged herself out of bed with a yawn, reaching for her dresser. Outside her room, she could hear another crash, followed by Emmett's footsteps as he raced back down the stairs. Brandy sighed and pulled up the left leg of her pajama shorts, revealing the smooth, bronze-brown skin of her thigh. " _Construction Focus: Ink Tattoos,_ " she muttered, her voice lacking its usual enthusiastic inflection as she pressed her palm to where her spider was. " _Come forth, Frigga the Weaving Spider._ " Frigga burst forth with far less fanfare than usual, landing on the ground and skittering around to face its master. Brandy ambled over to the door and opened it, gesturing towards the hallway. "Go make sure that pink-haired idiot and his feline companion don't bring the whole house down." The spider obediently scuttled out the of the room and towards the staircase, and Brandy closed the door behind it. "That ought to teach them a lesson or two," she grumbled, heading back to her dresser and pulling out her outfit for the day. "Think they can just barge in whenever, do they…"

She quickly pulled off her pajamas and got dressed, eschewing most of her traveling garb for a soft woolen turtleneck sweater, a part of dark brown short-shorts, and her usual leather thigh-high boots. Since she wasn't planning on going anyway today, she wasn't too concerned about keeping her tattoos bared; the only one she needed to worry about was Frigga, and that was because it was already out. _Speaking of which…_

As she left her room and headed down the stairs, she heard a familiar, agitated voice float up from the ground floor. "-what the heck is your problem, Brands? We just wanted to see if you were awake, you didn't have to sic one of your Constructions on us!"

"Aye!"

Brandy sighed as she entered the pantry, where Natsu and Happy had been tied up in some of Frigga's webbing and were about as pleased with their current situation as you could expect. "You know that I can't hear you through Frigga, right? Trying to talk to me using her is kind of pointless; she's not the Ravens or anything." she said, taking in the destruction the two had caused. "Cheese and crackers, boys, what did you _do?_ It looks like a hurricane roared through here."

"We were hungry." Natsu stated it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"And you couldn't have eaten while at the guild _because…?_ "

"Well, we saw this really cool mission and thought you'd be able to help, so we came right over," the Dragon Slayer explained, trying and failing to wriggle out of the webbing pinning him to the floor. "But we forgot to eat, so we thought, 'hey, we could just have breakfast over at Brandy and Emmett's house!' You don't mind, right?"

"Yeah!" Happy added. "You guys always have really yummy food from Ranuncolo!"

Brandy groaned. "Yummy and _expensive,_ you dolts. Frigga, _return_ ," she snapped, calling the spider back to her thigh with a snap of her fingers. The bindings around Natsu and Happy melted away, allowing the two to move their limbs about. " Do you know how much it costs to have that sort of food imported? That's why we only prepare Ranuncolian meals on special occasions, like on a holiday or after completing a really difficult mission. And now you've gone and gobbled up our entire pantry." She activated the concealment ink charm and marched over to Natsu, yanking the flier he had been holding right out of his hand. "I swear to everything you hold dear, you pink-haired jerk, if this mission isn't worth it I'm going to-"

Her words died in her throat as she gawked at the reward listed on the flier. "Two _hundred thousand_ jewels? Split three ways, that's over sixty-thousand jewels each! I could replace all the food you just ate five times over!" She scanned the job information, and her excited expression faltered a bit. "Wait, this is just a basic magical object retrieval mission. Why is it so expensive? And why do you need my help?"

"Keep reading!"

"Um, let's see… some book owned by some guy named Everlue… owns a mansion in Shirotsume Town, that's a carriage ride and change away… dirty old man looking to hire a new ma _ohhhhhh,_ I see." Brandy jabbed an accusing finger at Natsu and Happy. "You want me to pull some feminine wiles out of nowhere and seduce the Duke so I can get access to that book. Well, as much as I would just _love_ to get my flirt on with a dude who styles his moustache out of his nose hairs - seriously, gross - there's one little problem."

Natsu blinked, his brows furrowing together. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Is it because you like girls?"

"I like boys _and_ girls, Natsu, that's not the problem. The problem is this." She points to one of the finer-print sentences on the flier. "Everlue's looking for a maid with _blonde_ hair. Does this-" she gestures to her short, umber locks, "- look blonde to you?"

"Yeah, but you could just use your magic to change it, right?" Natsu pointed out. "Put some yellow ink in your hair, and then you could totally pass as a blonde! Then all you gotta do is put on a maid costume, get into that guy's mansion, and get that book! Two hundred thousand jewel, real easy!"

"Natsu… Natsu." Brandy sighed and ran her hand over her face. "That's not… Ink isn't _dye_ , Natsu, I can't just turn my hair blonde like that. And even if I could, why would I change my hair like that just to impress some creep for one mission? Not only would I look _terrible_ as a blonde, but dying my hair lighter would require either using a bunch of stuff in my hair that I don't want to put into my hair, or going out and buying a Color-Change device that I would never use beyond this one mission."

"Oh." Natsu seemed to deflate a bit. "Aw, man, and I was so excited to go on this one, too."

"Think of all the fish we could have bought with all those jewels!" Happy sniffed, a look

The corner of one of Brandy's eyes twitched in irritation. "Then why the hell don't you two just ask _Lucy?_ I mean, she's a blonde, right? _And_ she's hotter than I am, so she'd have a better shot anyway." That last comment wasn't meant to disparage herself; while she didn't exactly have the exaggerated voluptuousness of half of the women on this half of Fiore, Brandy's lean musculature, long legs, and tendency towards outfits that revealed both of these factors meant that she could use her body as a weapon as much as she could use it as a storage unit for her actual weapons. That being said, she wasn't exactly an expert at direct seduction, and Lucy was… well, _Lucy_. There was no beating around the bush about it: the girl had curves to spare. Plus she had the whip, so she could always work the domination angle if the maid thing didn't pan out.

"Huh… that's a good idea. We could check out her new place while we're at it, too!" Natsu suddenly jumps to his feet, filled with renewed vigor. "Well, then, what are we waiting for? Let's go, Happy!"

"Aye!"

Before Brandy could even process the shift in Natsu's mood, he had grabbed her wrist and was pulling her towards the front door. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she yelped. "You only came over because you thought I could turn myself blonde, why are you taking me with you?!"

"Hey, just because you can't be blonde doesn't mean we don't want you coming along with us!" Natsu exclaimed, beaming over his shoulder at her. "You're our pal, and pals stick together!"

If his smile wasn't so infectious, she'd deck the bastard. Instead, her mouth twisted upwards into a smile of her own. "Okay, _fine_ , but I'd better get a fair split of the profits," she said, before raising her voice and calling out to Emmett, "Hey, Master Torhearth, I'm going over to Lucy's. I also might be going on a mission, so I might not be back for a while!"

"Uh, okay!" Emmett's voice floated back to her. "Are you going with Natsu and Happy?"

"Apparently!"

"All right. Don't blow anything up!"

Brandy's gaze fell upon the Dragon Slayer, who was still practically dragging her towards the door with a trademark grin. _Yeah, right._ "No promises!"

* * *

"Wait, do you even know which house is Lucy's? She moved into Magnolia like two days ago."

"Yeah, of course I do! It's the one that smells like her, duh!"

"Your dog-like sense of smell is both fascinating and very, very concerning."

"Natsu isn't like a dog!" Happy objected as he walked beside the two humans. "Dogs are mean and scary! Natsu's sense of smell is like a cat's."

Brandy rolled her eyes. "Sure it is. Are we almost there?"

"Yup!" Natsu pointed to a quaint house near the canal. "It's that one, right over there."

It really was a nice little place, Brandy mused as they approached. It was a little shorter than the neighboring homes, with rich brick-orange walls and windows going all the way up. The way the windows were built into the roof suggested a third floor; perhaps an attic of some sort? She wasn't sure what a single person could do with an attic, especially when their luggage filled up exactly a single suitcase. But whatever worked for Lucy.

"All right!" Natsu said, his voice suddenly dropping down in volume as he rubbed his hands together. "We've gotta be real quiet about this."

"That word is in your vocabulary?" Brandy deadpanned.

Her snark went ignored. "Yeah!" Happy stage-whispered. "We need to be like ninjas!"

"Yeah, ninjas!"

"Wait," Brandy said. "Why do you even need to be quiet, anyway? Aren't we just stopping by to ask Lucy for help? Why are you climbing in through that window?"

She had to admit: when he wanted to, Natsu worked quickly. By the time she'd finished her sentence, he had already pried open one of the first floor windows and was halfway over the sill, with Happy perched on his shoulder. "We need to get inside _somehow_ ," he pointed out, immediately having forgotten the whole "be quiet" stuff he had been espousing just two seconds prior and instead reverting back to his default volume.

"You know there's a door, right? Why don't you just, I don't know, _knock?_ " Natsu didn't answer her, disappearing into the house. "H-hey, get back here! Natsu!" Brandy grumbled under her breath and pulled herself up over the sill. "Can't believe I have to babysit your thoughtless… _ugh_!"

As her boots hit the floor, the first thing she noticed was that the inside of the house was nice. Like, _really_ nice, with soft pink walls and long green curtains that covered the doorways. "Wow," Brandy murmured. "How much does this place _cost_? It's gotta be at least as expensive as our place, if not _more_ …" Noting that the pink-haired Dragon Slayer she'd chased after was nowhere to be found, she raised her voice and called out, "Natsu? Where'd you go?"

For a moment the only response was silence. Then, a shriek came from upstairs that almost made Brandy jump out of her own skin, followed by a crash and a " _Get the heck out of here, you jerks!"_

 _Hooo boy._ Brandy made a beeline for the stairs, taking them two at a time and practically charging into the room where the noise had come from. Inside, she saw Natsu and Happy sprawled on the ground, each rubbing miserably at various newfound bruises. Above them stood Lucy, wearing little more than a towel and a furious expression. "Jeez," Natsu winced. "We just came over to check out your new pad."

"Aye," Happy groaned weakly.

 _That's a big load of crap and you both know it._

Lie or not, it clearly wasn't going to pacify Lucy. "Oh, yeah?" she snapped. "Well, what you call 'checking out,' I call _barging in!_ And I'm pretty sure the police would call it _breaking and entering_ ," she added.

Brandy figured that now was as good of a time as any to butt in. "See, idiots, this is why we knock and wait patiently," she sighed, heading over to Natsu and grabbing him by the shoulder so she could haul him to his feet. "Not that either of you know what that word means…" She turned to Lucy with an apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry about that, Luce. Natsu's one of those 'gold heart, empty head' sort of people, you know?"

Lucy folded her arms over her chest with a pout. "You can say that again. So what are _you_ doing in here, then?"

"Trying to keep Natsu from causing a big ruckus." Brandy playfully ruffled Natsu's hair, ignoring his vocal objections over it. "Keyword being 'tried.' Don't worry, we're not here to be a bother." Her gentle hair-ruffling transformed into her shoving Natsu's head downwards pointedly. "Isn't that right, Natsu?"

"Ow, hey, let go of me!"

Lucy relaxed a little at this, because if there was one thing Brandy had learned how to be very good at, it was appearing friendly and approachable even when all evidence pointed to the contrary. A skill born from necessity. "Well, you guys should really get going. I'm gonna be really busy getting things set up, and I'm not even _dressed_ yet, so…"

"Come on, we were just trying to be friendly!" Natsu said.

"Yeah, well, this is a _serious_ invasion of my privacy, so if you could just-" Lucy's coffee-brown gaze fell on something just behind Natsu and Brandy, and her eyes widened to the size of teacup saucers. " _What are you doing?!_ "

Brandy looked over her shoulder to see Happy in the process of turning one of the walls into his new scratching post. "Nice place you got here," he remarked.

" _Let's try and keep it that way, all right?!"_

The momentary distraction was enough to allow Natsu the opportunity he needed to slip out of Brandy's grasp and wander over to the writing desk on the far side of Lucy's bedroom. "Hey," he said, picking up a large sheaf of papers, "what's all this?"

Lucy's expression turned from one of ire to one of horror as she saw what Natsu was holding. In the span of about half a second, she had crossed the room, ripped the papers from his hands, and in the process kicked him in the face hard enough to send him stumbling back. Brandy had to admire her bath towel's dedication to its job; even though all of that it stayed firmly secured to her body. " _Nothing!"_ Lucy shouted, dropping to the floor and clinging to the stack of papers like it was a lifeline.

 _Doesn't seem like "nothing,"_ Brandy thought.

Natsu seemed to share a similar sentiment. "So you'd just kick me in the face over nothing?" he asked, nursing the rapidly-rising bump on his head.

"Yeah, maybe I would! Now would you please just go home?"

"Aw, but your place is way more exciting!"

" _I hate boys…_ "

After a very apologetic Brandy had finally managed to drag a very bemused Natsu out of the bedroom and down into the living room, Lucy had gotten dressed, tied her hair into low pigtails, and had poured out some tea for the lot of them. And that's where they were now, with Brandy, Natsu and Happy enjoying their tea while Lucy frowned sternly at them from across the kitchen table. "Look," she said, "I just moved in, and I'm not ready for guests. So how about you three just drink your tea, say thanks, and get out, ya got that?"

"Talk about cold-hearted," Natsu said with a sigh.

"Ice-cold," Happy agreed.

Lucy's scowl deepened. "Watch it, _cat_."

Brandy rolled her eyes and took another sip of her tea (she didn't recognize the flavor, but there was a smoky quality to it that she really enjoyed) before speaking. "You did technically trespass, you know. It's perfectly fair of Lucy to decide when and how she accepts guests in her home."

"What do you mean, 'you?'" Lucy's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're a trespasser, too, you know."

"Only in the interest of trying to keep Natsu from destroying your house like he did my pantry this morning," Brandy said, shooting a glare at Natsu from over the edge of her teacup.

Natsu wasn't listening. Instead, his eyes had lit up as an idea formed in his head. "Hey, I know!" he exclaimed. "Why don't you show us all those weird little key guys that you like to collect!"

"For your information," Lucy said, "they're called Celestial spirits."

"How many of these Celestial spirits do you have contracts with?" Happy asked.

Asking an angry wizard about their magic was a sure way to distract them from whatever had them angry in the first place. "Six, so far!" Lucy said, beaming as she held up her keyring. "Not to brag or anything, but I even have a couple of different types of them." She carefully removes the keys from the ring and lays them out on the table. "The silver keys are the ones you can find in the magic shops. I've got Horologium the Clock, Crux the Southern Cross, and Lyra the Harp. But the gold ones are super rare. There are twelve total, and they open the gates of the Zodiac. I've got Taurus the Golden Bull, Aquarius the Water-Bearer, and that last one is Cancer the Giant Crab!"

Natsu's mouth watered at the mention of the last one. "Giant crab?!" he gasped.

Happy joined in on the salivating. "Giant crab legs…"

"I've never met anyone as obsessed with food as these two," Lucy muttered.

Brandy shrugged. "Boys and cats, am I right?" She propped her elbow up on the table and rested her chin in her hand. "You know, I know I've said this before, but I can't emphasize enough just how impressive your magic is. I mean, Celestial Spirit Wizards are incredible enough, but to have a full quarter of the Zodiac keys? That's insane. And you can summon any of them at will?"

"Well, not 'at will,' exactly," Lucy admitted. "The terms of the contract we Celestial Wizards make with our spirits determines when and where we can summon them, and for what reasons. So why do you know so much about Celestial Spirit magic, anyway? I mean, I know you mom has that key, but there's got to be more to it than that."

"Well," Brandy said, "From an academic standpoint, I've actually always been interested in summoning-class magic. Construction is classified as a summoning-class, you see, and it's always fun to see how the different types of magic within a certain class compare and contrast. Especially when you take into account the Holder and Caster super-classes."

"Huh, really? How does Construction magic work, anyway?"

Brandy grinned. "Tell you what: I'll show you mine if you show me yours." She reached out and poked Lucy's shoulder. "Go on, summon one of your spirits for us. I never actually got to _see_ you summon Aquarius back in Hargeon. I wanna see what it's like."

"That's not how it works, you know," Lucy huffed. "I just told you, I can't summon a spirit whenever, it'd be against our contract. But I _do_ need to make a contract with the key I bought in Hargeon." She pushed her chair away from the table and stood up, facing Natsu and Happy. "I don't supposed you fellas are interested in seeing how a Celestial wizard makes a contract with a Celestial spirit?"

Natsu and Happy stared at her for a second before leaning towards each other. "I hope it's not some grody blood pact," Happy whispered.

"Well it sounds like a pain in the butt to me," Natsu replied.

Neither of them were being nearly as discreet as they thought they were. "Um, I can hear you," Lucy said flatly, "so leave my butt out of this."

Brandy stood up out of her chair and practically slammed her hand over Natsu's mouth, shooting him a _shut-up-or-I'll-make-you-shut-up_ look. "Ignore that! Please ignore everything that comes out of his mouth, we would be very interested in seeing you make a contract!" She gives Happy's tail a tug for emphasis. "Isn't that _right,_ boys?"

The message was clear: absolutely _no_ wild antics until Lucy pulled off the summon.

After that, though, anything was fair game.

"Oh… kay then," Lucy said hesitantly, obviously a little put off by the way Brandy and the boys were acting. "Anyways…" She pulled out the key in question, its silver finish gleaming in the light streaming through the window. "All right, pay attention," she said, before holding the key out at arm's length in front of her, as if reaching to unlock a door only she could see. Her voice gains a new layer of authority as she recites what Brandy quickly surmises to be the incantation for the initial summon. " _I call upon thee, in the world of the Celestial spirits. I beckon you to my side at once. Pass through the gate!"_ She swept the key in an arc in front of her before bringing it up and then down in a vertical line. " _Open, Gate of Canis Minor! Come, Nikola!_ "

A beautiful magic circle burst forth into the air, with several beams of light spiraling out from the center. The beams came together, forming what looked to be a sphere of liquid light that eventually took the shape of… a small, trembly, snowman-dog-thing.

 _That was… underwhelming_.

Natsu and Happy seemed to think so, too. "Nice try," they said in unision.

Lucy rounded on them. " _Shut up, I meant to do that!"_ She immediately turned her attention to the snowman-dog-thing, and as it stared up at her with large, pensive eyes and a small, open smile on its face, she inevitably fell to the curse of Proximity to Small Adorable Thing. "Aww, look at you!" she cooed, dropping down to her knees and scooping up the critter so she could cradle it close to her chest. "You are such a cutie-patootie!"

"It _is_ pretty adorable," Brandy agreed, kneeling down beside them. "Hey, buddy. Can I pet you?" The snowman-dog nodded, and Brandy reached over to lightly stroke the top of its head, causing its smile to widen slightly and its tag to wag a little. "You know, if I'd known that being a Celestial wizard would mean getting to summon _you_ , I'd have learned that as a kid instead." Of course, her mom would have _killed_ her for that. She already disapproved enough about the fact that Brandy hadn't studied the family magic. _Not my fault I lack the aptitude, Mom._

"It doesn't take much magic power to get these little guys through the Gate," Lucy said," so a lot of wizards actually keep them as pets."

Happy frowned at that. "You know, this whole 'pet' thing doesn't sit well with me," he whispered in an aside to Natsu at a much louder volume than he thought he was speaking at.

"Not with a weird master like Loony here," Natsu replied in an equally loud not-whisper.

"My name is _Lucy_ , and I can still hear you." Lucy and Brandy exchanged a _look_ before Lucy put the little snowman-dog down and pulled out a small pad and a pen. "Well, let's start working on our contract. Are you free Mondays?"

The critter shook its head.

Lucy wrote that down. "Tuesdays?"

The critter nodded.

"Wednesdays?"

And on it went, with Lucy went through the days of the week and the snowman-dog indicated its availability or lack thereof. Brandy was fascinated by how straightforward and _mundane_ it all was. She had assumed that forging a contract with something as powerful as a Celestial spirit would require some sort of advanced spell, the way forging the blueprints for her Constructions were.

Of course, between her condition and the rare type of Construction she utilized, maybe she just had it a bit harder than others.

"Great!" Lucy said as she closed the notepad. "Well, that just about does it." The snowman-dog leaps into the air, letting out a prolonged, high-pitched noise of happiness at it does.

"That was pretty easy," Happy said.

"It may seem silly to you, but it's really important," Lucy replied. "You see, a Celestial wizard's contract relies on the promise that's made between the wizard and the spirit. Which is why I make it a point to _always_ keep my promises. Got it?"

 _Ah, hell._ Brandy shot a glance over at Natsu. He looked pretty disinterested on the surface, but she could see a hint of something almost diabolical in his eyes. He was scheming something, she was sure of it. "Always?" she said. "But what if you get tricked into making a promise with a bad guy or something, and you had to do evil things for them?"

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on. As if I'd get tricked into doing something like that."

"You mean like how you totally didn't get tricked into believing that purple-haired asshole in Hargeon was from Fairy Tail? That he was _Salamander_?"

"Oh, come on!" Lucy jabbed a finger in Natsu's direction. "As if anyone would realize that Natsu's Salamander at first glance! Look at him!"

 _Well, in that case, what happens next is on you._ "Point. Still, give us credit; our recruitment standards aren't strict, but they're not _that_ low. Anyway," Brandy continued, trying to get the conversation back on track, "is sorting out the agreement between spirit and wizard really that simple?"

"Well, it varies depending on the strength and availability of the Celestial spirit, but yeah, there's no ritual or pact or anything complicated like that. All I need to now do is come up with a name for the little guy!"

"Isn't it Nikola?" Happy asked.

"No, that's the species," Lucy replied. A metaphorical light bulb went off over her head. "Oh, I know!" she exclaimed before holding her arms out towards the snowman-dog in a beckoning gesture. "C'mere, Plue!" The spirit seemed to take to the new moniker well enough, wobbling over to Lucy's embrace.

"Plue, huh?"

"I think it's, like, the cutest name ever!" Lucy gushed, nuzzling her cheek against the soft fur on Plue's head. "Isn't that right, Plue?"

"Are you sure he's cool with that?" Natsu asked.

"Why wouldn't he be?"

"He seems pretty content with things," Brandy said.

"So even though his sign is 'the Little Dog,' he doesn't bark?" Happy remarked. "That's kinda weird."

"Yeah, well, I don't hear you meowing over there, buddy." Lucy put Plue down, and he immediately toddled over to the middle of the room, where he began hopping back and forth in a manner that could be considered dance-like, if one stretched the definition of "dance" to its breaking point. "What's he doing?" Lucy asked.

Natsu seemed to be enthralled by the spirit's clumsy bouncing, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he watched. After a second, he gave Plue a thumbs up and a trademark Natsu Grin. "Aw, man, you're right about that, Plue!" Plue returned the grin and the thumbs-up, though in a manner significantly less confident than that of the Dragon Slayer.

"You can _understand_ him?!" Lucy yelped. She was answered only by an uncharacteristic silence and abrupt stare from Natsu. Shooting a nervous glance at Brandy, she hissed, "What is his _deal?_ "

Brandy could only shrug.

"All right," Natsu said, standing up, "then it's settled. You're both going to be a part of our team!"

"Your… team?"

"Aye!" Happy exclaimed. "Even though everybody in the guild is allied to one another, some members that get along really well get together and form teams within the guild. That way, jobs that may be too hard for one person to take can get done by a team!"

"That's right," Brandy said. "However, don't think that being in a team is a binding contract or anything. For instance, Natsu and I could technically be considered a 'team,' but given that Master Emmett is my mentor in Construction, I do a lot of missions with him to help refine my skills." She shoots a pointed look towards Natsu. _Don't think I don't know exactly what you're trying to pull, you pink-haired little punk._

If Lucy recognized the subtext, she didn't showcase it, instead seeming to be completely enchanted by the idea of magical cooperation that Natsu and Happy were offering up. "Awesome!" she said. "Let's do it!"

Natsu held out his fist, and Lucy eagerly tapped it twice with her own fist before the two shared a high five. "Cool! So you're gonna work with us?" Natsu said.

"Yup, you have my word!"

"Okay, team, then let's get to work!" Natsu pulled out the flyer for the Everlue mission. "I've got our first job right here!"

Brandleif sighed. _Aaand because she doesn't like to go back on her promises, she's stuck with us. Stuck with him, I mean. I can bail anytime I want to._ Not that she did want to or anything, mind; Natsu was still her good friend, even if he was two tons of excitability, destructiveness, and lack of social graces wrapped up in one pink-haired package. _But… hey, maybe this whole team thing with these three will turn out to be pretty fun._

Lucy seemed to think so too, eagerly grabbing the flyer from Natsu. "Lemme see what you got…" She ran a critical coffee-brown gaze over the flyer. "So it's in Shirotsume, huh? No way, two hundred thousand jewel just for taking a book from some rich guy named Duke Everlue?!"

Natsu's grin had turned completely mischievous. "Should be a piece of cake, right?"

Lucy kept reading, her gaze flitting down to the fated fine print. "Please note, Everlue is a dirty old man who's currently looking for maids… with blonde… hair…?" Her expression turned to horror and betrayal as she stared open-mouthed at the others. "What?!"

"We know a blonde-haired girl, don't we?" Natsu asked conspiratorially, leaning down to once more faux-whisper into Happy's ear.

"Yup!" Happy agreed. "And I bet we can find her a maid's uniform!"

"Why you sneaky little… _that's not fair!_ " Lucy cried. She immediately rounded on Brandy. "You knew about this, didn't you?"

"Knew? I was the one who _suggested_ you playing the part of the maid," Brandy answered. "You are both cuter and blonder than me, after all. Of course, my intentions were for that to be interpreted as us _asking_ you, but…" She gave a _it's-Natsu-what-do-you-expect_ shrug.

"Then why didn't you _say something?!_ "

Brandy cleared her throat and, in an admittedly poor imitation of Lucy, said, "'Oh, come on. As if I'd get tricked into doing something like that.' That _was_ what you said, wasn't it?"

"You… you…" Lucy sank to her hands and knees, practically clouded in gloom.

"It's a good thing that Celestial wizards never go back on their word, 'cause now you're stuck with us," Natsu said.

" _But you tricked me!"_

"Oh, lighten up, wouldja? Now, try getting into character and address Happy here as your master!"

" _No way!"_

* * *

 _A/N - Natsu and Brandy's entire dynamic could be described as "Natsu no" "NATSU YES" "yeah okay fine" and absolutely no nuance would be lost. That's it, that's these two idiots._

 _This chapter ended up a lot longer than I had planned on it being. The scene in Brandy and Emmett's house wasn't supposed to be as long as it was, but Brandy and Natsu play off each other so well when Natsu's being his usual firebrand self and it sort of got away from me. As for why Natsu doesn't know that Brandy's ink magic can't change her hair after seven years of them knowing each other, well… it's Natsu. He probably didn't pay that much attention to the details of her specific brand (eh heh heh) of magic. That, or he just doesn't know how hair dye works, which is always plausible; I figure there are some folks in our worlds who don't really know how the chemicals function. Hell, even I don't really know how it works._

 _Okay, so I know I had a three-chapter-one-chapter system in place for Skin Deep and Tempus Fugit, but I really want to write the next chapter so we're putting off the one chapter of Tempus Fugit until I finish up my Skin Deep hot streak. So the next chapter of Skin Deep will be up soon, THEN Tempus Fugit. In the meantime, feel free to favorite and leave a review!_


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